Teammates: Dylan Fealtman
Class:  ID 4072  |  Instructor Herb Velazquez

Most products today are designed for disposal. This is particularly harmful when products generate electronic waste, especially ones that are priced low enough to discourage repair or resale, such as small appliances.

Pluto is a sustainable drip coffee machine that challenges society’s consumerism mindset. Our objective and was to design a small kitchen appliance that consolidates components and strategically arranges parts to be repaired, cleaned, and reused.

This product stands out from its competitors by empowering the user to easily dismantle parts.
This design for disassembly empowers users to simply replace one part, rather than the whole machine and allows users to easily remove parts for cleaning. The parts are also dishwasher safe, easing the cleaning process.

By addressing the repairing and cleaning process from the beginning, Pluto is designed to persist in a circular economy. Users are encouraged to swap products at the end of their useful or desired life in exchange for heavy discounts on future products. This system lets all parties to win: users get a discount, Pluto gets its materials, and the earth gets a break.

Overall, Pluto was designed to challenge the standard business model by creating a product with sustainability at its core. By utilizing design, usability, and systems thinking, we created a product and business model that offers consumers a beautiful and clever product that they can feel good about buying. Instead of making products that break, Pluto challenges the status quo and gives Earth a break instead.

Class:  ID 4072  |  Instructor Herb Velazquez

I created Clearly to address the challenge of reducing single-use plastics in the beauty industry. This reusable bottle mixes a compacted round of concentrated shampoo with water. Not only does this completely transform the overall user experience, but it also decreases the overall plastic usage and the emissions created by shipping water-heavy products across the globe. Since most products are 70-90% water, I hope that this idea of using concentrates would extend into other beauty products as well to solve the larger challenge of reducing single-use plastics. Specifically, Clearly provides a refillable solution that does not require consumers to remember to bring their bottle when they go to the store and allows consumers to switch between brands without replacing their bottle, addressing both consumer needs I identified early in my process. Clearly revisions the shampoo purchasing process by allowing consumers to buy a one-time bottle and replaceable concentrates that would hypothetically be provided by big hair-care brands. As more individuals become aware of the environmental impact of their consumption, there will be an urgent need to rethink current packaging systems that are reliant on single-use plastics. The principle behind Clearly can be easily replicated into other water-dense products in the beauty industry, allowing for brand expansion.
 

Class: ID 2024  |  Instructor: Steve Chininis

Most sponges are filled with bacteria. Research proves there can be up to 82 million bacteria present in one cubic inch. After discovering how unsanitary sponges were, I wanted to design a product that solves the issue of "dirty dishwashing", while simultaneously improving the overall user-experience.

The two main problems I identified in traditional sponges and dish brushes were their inability to be cleaned or recycled. This presented an opportunity to design a product that both allows users to feel confident in the cleanliness of their cleaning tool, but also allows the product to be recycled by utilizing modularity.

Scrubi is a self-sanitizing dish brush and holder. The brush has replaceable heads that allow the user to snap on different attachments as needed. The disinfecting base cleans the brush after each use, allowing the user to feel confident that the brush is sanitary. Additionally, Scrubi was designed with aesthetics in mind. This product acts as a countertop accessory rather than a sink-side eyesore.