Tea Set
Creating a tea set to calm stressed teachers
Project Length - 5 weeks
Design Goals
Create a quick tea-making experience that encourages a reset in the day for the stressful lives of teachers.
Learning Outcomes
This project taught me the importance of creating user-centered designs (teachers). I also developed skills in blending functional features with thoughtful aesthetics.
Process
Meet Ava
Ava juggles lesson plans and manages kids in the classroom all day long and often feels stretched thin by the emotional demands of her job.
Day in the life
Research
Findings
real text conversation with teacher
I reached out to a 6th-grade teacher to learn more about teachers’ behaviors and the break room environment where my product would be placed. From this, I learned what would be the proper size and volume of my tea kettle.
Green Tea Research
Benefits
Green tea has many benefits, such as L-Theanine and antioxidants. Most importantly, the process of making green tea creates a calming pause in a stressful day.
Teachers’ Break Time Journey
Inspiration
Aesthetic
Bringing the calming aesthetic of Asian tea products to sleek minimal American products.
Ideation
Aesthetic
Sketching with a focus on a Zen form that American teachers find comforting and familiar.
3D Ideation
Quick prototyping
Creating simple prototypes to ensure my design will be ergonomic for teachers and the correct size.
3D-Printed Final Prototypes
Prototyping with a Purpose
Creating 3D prototypes validated my ergonomic studies and allowed me to create a kettle with the correct size.
Final Renderings
UI Exploration
UI purpose
Developing a simple/modern ui look helps drive the calming nature of my product. Users interact with my product through one dial on the right to set the temperature and timers.
Materiality
A familiar material choice with multiple color options. In a fast environment, this is an easy-to-clean material.
Powder-coated metal & ABS plastic
Key Feature
By pressing this button on the kettle’s knob, the integrated strainer drops. This feature provides a hands-free way to release the strainer when finished.
Strainer button realease
Before eject
After eject
Internal
cross section look
In-Context
Key Shot + Nano Banana render
Prompt: Put this tea kettle on a plain counter with some context, maybe a box of tea.
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