The instant beverage cooler is a unique project in terms of it being completely new with regards to interaction with a beverage cooling device. While instant beverage coolers do exist, they are not a common sight. The interaction with the product's physical and digital aspects that the team designed not only enables better user experience, but also sets a benchmark for future instant beverage chillers once they are more mainstream. This unique juxtaposition of not having a benchmark for the way people interact with the product, allowed us a freehand for designing a user experience that would be unique to the product.

 

My involvement as the industrial designer in the project started at a critical stage where time was of the essence. A constrained timeframe and manufacturing limitations had to be taken into account without compromising the needs of the user. It involved me developing a form that was aesthetically pleasing as well as manufacturable, without compromise to essential attributes of hygiene and easy cleaning.

 

The beverage cooler is designed for use in cafes, restaurants & bars, homes, offices and airports. We designed an intuitive control panel, that would enable two users to chill their drink at a time. The interface had to allow flexibility to the user to choose from a range of temperatures down to 2ºC, while also mentioning the optimum temperature for each beverage. The user interface design took into account all stakeholders and usage scenarios such as staff, self-service as well as maintenance activities. Ensuring safety was also paramount to the design of interactions with the device. These aspects were derived from products that had similar attributes to the beverage cooler. I served as the point of contact between our team working on the user interface and the clients' electronics team.