Introduction

 A purist premium washing mashine combining european premium design and Japanese manufacturing excellence. Made exclusively for the expanding Chinese middle-class. 

"The top-of-the-line Alpha has a brushed stainless steel body, a digital display intended to look like a car’s instrument panel, and a Wi-Fi connection that allows owners to load detergent remotely via smartphone and receive a text message when the wash is done."

- Bloomberg 2018

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ROLE | Lead Designer
CLIENT | Panasonic
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN | Studio F·A·Porsche
YEAR | 2018
MY CONTRIBUTION | UX Design, Concept Development, Ideation, Design Strategy, Concept Refinement, Storytelling, CGI, DFM  

Challenge

“No one accepts new technologies like the Chinese,” Homma said. “Their smartphone use puts Silicon Valley to shame.”

My Designteam in Shanghai was faced with the task. How to create the perfect UI and Experience for a top of the lineup Industrial Design like the Alpha Series designed by Studio F·A·Porsche.  How to translate the unique technical features into a exciting experience for the consumer. Also, we wanted the interface to be more than just an indicator but more form follows emotion, not function. 

As a  result  of experimenting with several directions we decided to design the menu in reference to the instrument panel of iconic sports car, while using the button to navigate through the features and adjust the settings.

Process

Accompany a start-up to create a new coffee reality.

Working in close cooperation with Studio F·A·Porsche we designed a unique tactile interaction concept. Since we believe that having a sophisticated haptic experience is the best solution for the consumer we designed a unique button control and decided against using an usually commen touchscreen solution. The whole process involved several interations of prototyping, long hours of brainstorming with our Software engineers in Dalian to surpass technical issues and fine-tuning of the initial Design.

Teamwork

Great Products are build by great Teams.

The key to many successful Products is a great collaboration. Many thanks to Steffen Ganz and his team at Studio F·A·Porsche for the great Industrial Design.  Jason Jin for the Design and Manufacturing support and implementation. Many thanks to Liu Jianguo, General Director of Panasonic Household Appliances for the great support and the vision and General Manager for Panasonic Design Center Shanghai Tsuda Yukihiro for the inspiration and creative support.  Many thanks also to Shigeo Usui Director - Design Center Appliances Company. Also our support at Pactera Shanghai, Kate Ge and the Panasonic Software Team in Dalian.

Thank you!