Case Study: Induction Kettle

The impact of small interactions

Our Induction Kettle project was a joint effort as part of a module at Loughborough University, we were tasked with redesiging a simple home brand kettle. I would really love to know any thoughts or comments on this case study— Check out the original case study here.

Kettles are refilled and reheated relentlessly in shared living and working spaces throughout the day. Our induction kettle is targeted at these spaces to reduce the amount of water and energy wasted.

Over 1.27 TWh of energy is wasted in the UK every year due to overfilling kettles. That’s a big figure. Can you imagine contributing to this every time you simply empty the kettle for fresh water? Small interactions make a big difference and this is why we have taken a holistic approach to redesigning the kettle experience.

Understanding how kettles were used in shared places was essential to our brief. We decided to explore why and what our users needed to heat in the first place before considering kettles themselves. When it came to kettles, we observed our users throughout different living and shared environments to understand how, why and when they were using them.

By examining the experience of each and every touchpoint of existing kettles we were able to identify the biggest opportunity areas for potential improvements.

What fueled our project was the finding that people never did really measure the amount of water they were using when they filled the kettle, they just did it. One particular pattern that emerged was that people did not ever consider the markings on the kettle to influence how much they fill their kettle. In addition, the reason everyone was emptying their kettles after they sat with heated water in was due to concerns about the quality of the water being affected.

Instead of focusing on small fixes, we looked to find the ‘why’ behind our findings, what motivated our users and even what we could influence in their experience for change.

By using induction heating a user is able to heat their drink by placing their cup on the surface of our product and inserting an induction rod. This allows users to choose the amount of liquid they would like with less waste. There are five induction rods, so up to five cups can be heated at once.

By stripping down the expected user experience of using a kettle we can eliminate the need for a constant refill or waste of energy — instead the simple and delightful interaction of a small tactile rod becomes the focal point of the experience and therefore tackling a large, complex problem through a small interaction.

Thanks for reading — I’m currently a user experience intern at Bosch Power Tools and an Industrial Design student at Loughborough University. Feel free to get in touch or check out my website.