Piston Faucet
I worked with the Kohler Kitchen Faucets team over the course of 6 months to design a new category of articulating kitchen faucets. Based on the results of my usability studies, I provided the Industrial Design and Engineering teams with design recommendations which informed the design of a new faucet category and informed the design of future articulating faucet and professional faucet designs.
Piston Kitchen Faucet Concept
Generative Research
Benchmark / Competitor Evaluation / Usability Testing
I initially conducted a benchmark study and competitor evaluation with Kohler articulating and professional faucets and competitor articulating and competitor faucets to gather objective and subjective usability metrics. This in involved having participants complete a series of standardized tasks with each faucet and complete a questionnaire that included Net Promoter Score.
Benchmark: 15 participants (7 females, 8 males; 28 - 56 years old)
Analysis
I compared the benchmark metrics with each iteration of the Piston faucet prototype to understand how the Piston faucet compared in performance and satisfaction and determine whether satisfaction was increasing with each round of design changes.
Analysis of faucet "reach"
Prototype
From the start of the project, I was involved in creating design goals with the team that we refined over the course of 9 months. Within the span of the project, 7 prototypes were built and refined based on 7 rounds of iterative usability studies that I designed and executed.
Prototype testing session
Evaluative Research
Prototype Evaluation / Usability Testing
I designed and executed 7 rounds of rapid usability testing on 7 different prototypes to refine the design and engineering on the concept, including: (1) determining minimal viable reach, (2) appropriate resistance, (3) expectations of "easy to clean", (4) define parameters of range of motion, and (5) determine effectiveness and efficiency of cleaning. This involved creating test protocols, designing mock-ups and questionnaires, analyzing data and developing insight reports based on usability findings.
Usability Testing: 48 participants (20 males, 28 females; 29 - 72 years old)
7 design iterations and 7 usability studies
User testing sessions
Outcome
Based on study results, I developed insight reports that I presented during bi-weekly team meetings. After each prototype was tested, we refined project goals and determine design and testing parameters for the next prototype.
My research validated design decisions from a user perspective, informed steps within the design process, and influenced the final product concept. This research resulted in feature improvements for Karbon® kitchen faucet and provided a repository of research to design a new category of articulating kitchen facets.
Research insight reports