For - Havells India ltd | Role - Industrial and UI Design | Timeline - June 2020 to Feburary 2021
Market Insights
Almost all devices share the same internals and construction with variations in filter shape, size and fans / motors.
Some of the products have additional features like heating, fans etc adding more use cases to the product.
The on-device interfaces tend be complex, but capable of showing a lot of information.
Most of newer products we reviewed had accompanying apps that could be used to control and manage the device.
A lot of the existing product designs and material choices are similar to medical products, and they tend to look out of place in households.
User Interviews
Interviews: 12 interviews with people who use air purifiers regularly. All our users were based in North India and 4 of the users had underlying health problem related to air pollution.
Research Goals:
- Understanding their daily routine (hours spent at home, product usage times)
- Understanding their use of air purifiers (common challenges, pain-points)
- Understanding perception of air quality (familiarity with air indexes, health priorities)
- Specific needs (e.g. new baby)
- Understanding their use of air purifiers (common challenges, pain-points)
- Understanding perception of air quality (familiarity with air indexes, health priorities)
- Specific needs (e.g. new baby)
Pain Points
The productivity of the Air Purifier is hard to measure - unlike an AC or a Humidifier, there is no detectable difference in the environment.
Mostly used in the winters, less used in the summers.
One of the users had to get a humidifier to balance out the dryness caused.
Maintenance is a major issue, original filters are hard to find and difficult to change / Poor aftermarket service.
Random beeps and alerts, with insufficient explanations of the underlying issue or solutions are a bit stressful.
Overwhelming to fully understand all the features and functions.
