harmony
The Harmony tea set includes a kettle, teapot, and tea cups all designed to work together to make a perfect cup of tea. The tea set is designed to make tea-making easy and enjoyable, while also adding a touch of beauty to your home decor.
research
To get a better understanding of tea and tea rituals, we did user interviews, cultural research, market analysis, material research and more.
problem statements
After summarizing our research data, we found two design opportunities:
Tea making tools are stored everywhere and not easily accessible. How might we unify the tools and the tea-making process?
Tea culture in the United States is more rush and on-the-go. How might we encourage people to slow down, relax and enjoy a good cup of tea?
sketch!
Kevin and I did more than 50 sketches together to explore different ideas. We focused on developing unique interactive and visual methods of making, enjoying, and storing tea.
Top 6 Directions
After the last round, we narrowed down our direction to design a unique tea brewing experience.
After presenting the concepts to the class, many people like this concept because the hierarchy shows the flow of the tea. Besides, the three pieces (kettle, teapot, cup) work together like a tea factory.
Top 3 Directions
Focusing even further in, we refined the top concepts from the previous round to put to the test for final phase development.
Some critiques mentioned that the middle concept feels too automated, while the leftmost feels too cute. By incorporating both, we might find a sweet spot area for our final direction.
dialing it in
In these mockups, we explored some pivoting and non-pivoting concepts. We decided to move on with the non-pivoting concept because the pivot experience takes away the intimacy of the pouring of tea.
Diving even deeper on the final direction after pursuing a non-pivoting concept, we spent our efforts in finding the form language and system that best served the tea experience.
Several iterations of trays that provided people with a sense of freedom as well as having a very unique directional flow between the kettle and the teapot.
We also spent time exploring individual sizes and diameters for the purpose of volume studies to understand real life dimensions.
After much exploring and decision making, we arrived to this set which featured the optimal volume and a good directional relationship.
Some rough mockups to test one of our ideas. By flipping the teapots base to the other side of the kettles base, a user can easily switch the orientation of the teapot to a left/right handed setup.
We also made several handles to find the most visually balanced and ergonomic one.
getting closer
Detail iterations in sketch…
Kettle refinements in CAD…
Teapot refinements in CAD…
harmony
A modern tea set designed for your tea ritual.
Electric Kettle - The water dispense button on the back of the kettle has the same rose gold metallic finish as the long spout to show their relationship.
Teapot - The top of the handle has a curve-in form that not only provides a more ergonomic grip, but also flows well with the design of the spout.
how to prepare tea?
Fill the electric kettle with water.
Then, fit the kettle onto the tray to heat it up.
Adjust to the optimal temperature for your tea.
Scoop tea leaves into the teapot while waiting for the water to heat up.
After the water is ready, press the button to dispense hot water into the preheated teapot. Sit back and enjoy the water falling view.
Your tea is ready in a few minutes. Fill your cup.
Relax, and enjoy your tea!
When not in use, HARMONY sits elegantly on your coffee table as a beautiful home decor, so you don’t have to store it away.
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