The project below was a group effort by the design team at LDA along with the design direction by Simplehuman. The pages below were a portion of my contribution to the project. Concepts, sketches, and renders below are my own. Photography supplied by Simplehuman.
phase_01
Develop initial concepts solving for the poor user experience found in the kitchen when the user needs to wet a paper towel with cleaning solution. Solve this problem by incorporating the cleaning solution into the paper towel holder.
phase_02
Client picked direction 05 but had concerns about the user experience of pressing down on the spray head. The next phase would focus on the same design direction but with a traditional trigger. We also focused on attaching and releasing the spray head from the body through a variety of mechanisms.
phase_03
Client wanted further refinement of concept 01 and concept 03 with further exploration of trigger details and release mechanism.
phase_04
Client requested a phase focused on ergonomics. We explored shapes that would fit more traditionally in the hand with a directional focus. Additionally we added finger holes for easier lifting and mobility.
phase_21
Phase 5 through Phase 20 were completed by other members of the design team. Rejoining the project at Phase 21 the general direction had been picked. It is a mix of my previous concepts (p1_concept_05, p2_concept_04) as well as new design and functionality developed by the design team at LDA and Simplehuman.
During the previous phases it had been determined the best way to release the spray bottle from the paper towel dispenser was using a push-push locking mechanism. This functionality worked well but there was a fringe user scenario where the user would prefer to spray a paper towel while the dispenser was still attached to the towel holder.
The focus of this phase was to explore methods for the user to use the spray bottle while still mounted to the paper towel dispenser. The theory was during small cleanups it would be easier to spray one paper towel rather than remove the spray bottle completely to spray the affected area. A push-push mechanism had been developed for releasing the spray bottle so we would need to design a mechanism that would not disengage the push-push mechanism while spraying when mounted.
phase_23
This phase focused on ergonomics with alternative nozzle shapes for added comfort and grip details that provided visual and physical feedback.
phase_24
One visual feature that Simplehuman wanted to resolve was minimizing the visual of the exposed spray head by lowering it so only the ring above was exposed. This phase focused on lowering the spray head while reducing gap around the nozzle.
final design
The team at LDA along with Simplehuman finished the final details of the product and is now in production and on store shelves.
