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Designers

Ingo Schmitz

Year

2024

Category

Product

Country

Germany

Design Studio / Department

Innovation / Industrial Design

Three questions for the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
How do you combine sustainability with an outstanding user experience?
What makes all users feel deeply that they are interacting with a basic building block of life? Seeing and feeling the refreshingly sparkling water! Bubbling with a device that also protects the water thanks to its consistent Cradle to Cradle capability.
The challenge of developing a clean product for the circular economy is all the greater when it comes to our most precious commodity - a special and yet fundamental experience: quenching thirst. It had to be simple and tangible.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
The team came up with an intuitive concept whose simple operation required the filling direction to be reversed.
A high, adjustable carbon dioxide content means high pressure above the water. As only a glass bottle was an option for reasons of purity and the sparkling water experience had to remain visible, the solution was not immediately obvious. The 'ah' effect only came when a form of double-walled bottle was devised that had the additional advantage of heat insulation without increasing the diameter too much. Now that's what I call development!

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
The product will prove that sustainability does not mean a restriction on the quality of life but rather an enrichment for society. We will have developed many products like this and will show that Cradle to Cradle development is worthwhile - for companies, consumers and nature.