The Karbon Kettle is the result of a project assigned at the Georgia Institute of Technology's Interactive Product Design Junior level course. The aim of the project was to conduct market and user research to determine issues with common household appliances and find applications for smart technologies.
Our group chose the electric kettle and determined through rigorous review some major complaints with products currently on the market.
Major problems with existing electric kettles:
Plastic Internal components result in a plastic-like taste
Sticker decals tend to fade
Non-removable lid prevents unobstructed access
No indicators of water temperature after completion
+ Why are there so many appliances whose purpose is to boil water??
Current water boiling appliances
Electric kettle, coffee maker, vegetable steamer, kitchen pot
Finding A Form
Enabling Coffee Making
To be able to make coffee in out kettle we had to research the easiest way for us to make it possible. Our first idea was to include a French Press, but after doing a lot of research on how most people make coffee, we found the old classic: a Percolator. This was a classic back in the days but has been replaced in most households by the automatic drip coffee makers. We thought: Why re-invent the wheel? Can we make this a thing again?
We decided to include this way of making coffee in our design.
So how does a percolator actually work?
To make it easy, we illustrated it.
The heat makes the water travel through the pipe, up to the top compartment where it is spread out over the coffee grounds, and then drops out as coffee. The longer you let it boil, the stronger the coffee.
