TWI WATERCURA PORTABLE
Designed at Altitude, Inc in Boston, Massachusetts.
GROWING AN INITIATIVE FOR GOOD
Since 2008, The Water Initiative (TWI) has worked in global water markets such as Mexico, South America and the Middle East. In Mexico alone they have installed over 50,000 POD devices for rural and urban homes to remove arsenic, bacteria and other regional contaminants from drinking water. These efforts in Mexico alone have positively impacted approximately 500,000 people!
In 2012 The Water Initiative partnered with Altitude to help them develop a nimble product solution capable of serving people in a variety of situations and settings. By doing so they hoped to expand their product line and reach a greater number of people in new markets.
UNDERSTANDING USER NEEDS
Altitude began by examining and outlining the various processes for obtaining water in different parts of the world and the unique user needs relative to each scenario. These use-case scenarios helped inform how the user would interact with the product in each example allowing the design team to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of different product configurations.
Vessel size also became a critical factor when validating the usability of these initial configurations. Altitude conducted a vessel sizing study in order to help the design team better understand the impact of size and proportion on usability. The insights gained in these initial phases were critical in developing a product configuration that would best fulfill the user needs.
CRAFTING THE RIGHT AESTHETIC
After developing the product configuration, Altitude created three visual themes based on the product specifications and price point information provided by TWI. These themes, coupled with our understanding of the user and the product configuration, became the design framework that would support our concept development efforts. The initial concepts covered a range of both aesthetic and user-related considerations that became a springboard into future refinement and engineering efforts.
A PORTABLE FILTRATION SYSTEM
The result is the WaterCura Portable which is powerful enough to remove arsenic, bacteria, viruses, pesticides and other harmful contaminants while remaining small enough to store away neatly. It can produce plenty of clean water at home or on the go for traveling abroad.
KEY CONTRIBUTORS: Joseph Morin, Neil Bacon, Dave Swett, Joongoo Lee, Paul Cox
