Project Overview

In 2015 we developed and within the same year launched two all-new consumer electronic products the “iKettle 2.0” and “Smarter Coffee”. The aim was to bring innovative technology and beautiful design together in a product that we all use everyday, making it a more intuitive and effortless experience. Design, quality and the user experience led the entire project.

These products were to give the user a whole new morning experience ’A new way to start your day’ by having your kitchen appliances connected to an app that you can control from anywhere in the home or office.

Organisation

Smarter Applications Ltd

Team

Christian Lane - Chief Executive Officer
Andreas Lane - Chief Development Officer
Isabella Lane - Managing Director
Ranjni Janda - Project Manager
Chris Corse - Sales Director

Project Brief

In January 2014 we launched the worlds first wifi connected kettle, also known as the original ‘iKettle'. Since then we have become the leading brand of connected kitchen appliances in the UK. As CDO of Smarter I headed up the design and development in the UK of two new products the “iKettle 2.0” and “Smarter Coffee”. Both products needed to be designed, developed and ready for mass production within the the space of 5 months. 

There were two sides to this project requiring design and development, the physical products and the software applications that connected them.

Design, quality and the user experience led the entire project. As a physical product it needed to look beautiful to the eye and work seamlessly for you in the background, learning and adapting to fit in with your lifestyle through intuitive software. We wanted to make products that would do basic tasks like boil water to be something so much more.

All development and engineering took place in the UK to ensure that the products would result in the way that we envisioned, to then be produced on a commercial scale in Asia for distribution worldwide.

Project Innovation/Need

With connected products becoming more and more popular, we wanted to bring to life a product that would bring innovation and design your everyday life, using the products that you know and love the most and making them better and more thoughtful.

Instead of creating something new like a toy or gadget, we wanted to take a part of peoples daily routine and improve it, making it smarter. This would give the user more time to be creative, productive, efficient or even lazy by spending more time relaxing after a hard days work.

A kettle is a product that we all use everyday and is an essential in any home, by making it smarter and intuitive it allows the user to do more with their time, it has been designed so you ultimately have to do less to achieve the task.

Design Challenge

Designing something that’s beautiful to look at is one thing, but to design something that has a function and for mass production has proven to be a lot trickier. Being restricted to parts and materials commercially viable and suitable for mass production made things a lot more difficult. Whether it was a certain component within the electronics or type of plastic or metal to get the desired finish or colour, there were so many challenges to overcome. This and ensuring that we were ready to start mass production within 5 months from initiating the project and being a start-up, on a very tight budget!

We did extensive research and consumer testing to ensure that we were creating products that the market wanted and would buy, from colours and finishes we had to ensure that we would create a product that would suit all. We also wanted to create a way that would allow the user to customise and personalise their products, so we also developed interchangeable coloured panels for the coffee machine, and high quality unique finishes such as satin black and rose gold plating for the kettle.

Sustainability

We had to ensure that the materials we would source were within budget to reduce manufacturing with the ultimate aim of bringing down the product cost directly to the consumer, whilst only using the best quality materials and ensuring all suppliers were using sustainable and compliant materials in Asia.