Background

New product development (NPD) efforts as part of the Safe Water Project at PATH, Seattle, picked up the threads from where the Extended User Testing concluded (for more information on the preceding phases of research and design strategy executed by Quicksand, please refer to User Experience Research for Safe Water Strategies in BoP Markets).

As part of the NPD phase, Quicksand was given the mandate to design and develop a water treatment device for low-income consumer markets that would set new benchmarks for its category. The target specifications for the product were:

• a new price benchmark that was less than half the costs of existing products in the market
• a far superior usability from the point of view of product ergonomics, durability and robustness
• a comparable treatment efficacy but more stringent safe water criteria
• a product system that would make customization possible for different demographics and geographies

Quicksand collaborated with industrial design, engineering, technology and project management partners in the United States & India to steer product design and development. Our responsibilities as the product design partner included:

1. Guide the product development efforts from our position as the custodian of user experience data
2. Provide product design skills that leveraged our understanding of user experience with the constraints imposed by other aspects of the product strategy (namely engineering, technology, commercials, marketing and manufacturing)
3. Provide resources and research expertise in testing concepts developed by the product team with users and other stakeholders directly involved in the successful adoption of the product

Project Process

The project process that followed comprised the following four phases:

Phase 0: Discovery and Project Planning

Phase 1: Product concept development and evaluation

Phase 2: Alpha & beta concept design, development, prototyping & evaluation

Phase 3: Beta unit evaluation

Research Snapshots

Phase 0 & Phase 1 culminated in multiple reference design concepts in conformance with user experience, engineering, technology, commercial and manufacturability guidelines. The concepts went through an iterative cycle of prototyping, user testing & evaluation and subsequent redesigning to eventually culminate in a single beta concept.

From concept to functional beta prototypes, the project was successfully completed in 6 months navigating complex, multi-stakeholder collaborations across different time zones. The project team was able to meet all COGS (cost of goods sold) and UX (user experience) targets specified at the beginning of the project.

The field testing of beta units is pending and will follow the format of  the Extended User Testing study carried out earlier by Quicksand. PATH intends to foster commercial partnerships to introduce the products in emerging markets of India, Africa and South Asia.