NEW LAUNDRY EXPERIENCE
SIMPLIFY AND REDESIGN THE WASHER CONTROL PANEL
DEVICE
WASHING MACHINE
MY ROLE
SUB PROJECT LEAD
CONDUCT RESEARCH & PARTICIPATE
DESIGNED WIREFRAME & INFORMATION ARCHITECT
INTERACTION DESIGN
PROTOTYPE HIGH-FIDELITY CONTROL PANEL
TEAM
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS
DEVELOPERS: PROTOTYPING (H/W, S/W)
OVERVIEW
Imagine that you want to wash your clothes for the first time and
you're facing the control panel of washer
The control panel of washing machine had been an issue for long time since there was a huge gap between novices and experts. So, washing machine design team wanted to approach differently and asked our team to redesign the control panel of washer with fresh eyes and new approach.
HOW WE APPROACH
In the beginning, we thought we need to look over all the control panels of washer in the market to redesign the control panel. However, we realize that If we just ask "what is the problem of the washer control panel?", then we would get the limited answers only about the control panel itself.
So We wanted to ask the ground question about laundry.
"WHAT IS LAUNDRY"?
PROJECT PROCESS
We planned the project with two phases; Research phase and Design phase. Also, to use our time effectively, we paralyzed field research and design ideation at the same time.
RESEARCH
PILOT RESEARCH
Our team members logged our laundry experience journey individually and shared together to make user journey map to figure out how we approach.
DESK RESEARCH
We researched the control panels from all manufactures and analyzed it. Figured out what's in common across all control panels
ON-SITE VISITS
We visited home appliance shops and observe customers who come to buy the washer and interviewed sales staff about what people consider.
MENTAL MODEL
We participated deep listening sessions in San Francisco and found out what people have in their mind when it comes to the laundry.
CHALLENGES
A BIG GAP BETWEEN
NOVICES AND EXPERTS
Novice says washer is too difficult to use because of the complexity of the control panel and not clear about how they operate it.
However, experts have no problems to use it since they already know what they use all the time.
MAKE IT SIMPLER,
YET WITH ALL FEATURES
We had to redesign the control panel less busier and less complex but at the same we couldn't get rid of current features. Most of features has been there for long time and new features are added as new technology came out. So making it simpler with keeping all the features was challenging.
CONTRADICTION BETWEEN
REAL USAGE AND
WHEN PURCHASING
From many user researches, about 70~80% people only use few cycles: Regular/ Normal/ Delicate. However, Ironically, when they go to shopping, they choose the washer that has more features since the washer with more features means better machine even though they don't use them.
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
Usually people learned the washer from their mom or family members so the way of usage is kind of succeed by generation in their family. Also, control panel hasn't been changed a lot or dramatically with the character of home appliances. So it is really risky to change structure or layout and try something new.
DISCOVERY
MENTAL MODEL DIAGRAM
Mental model shows people's behavioral patterns about LAUNDRY which includes people's motivations, thought-processes, along with the emotional and philosophical landscape in which they operate.
Mental model diagram
Mental model space
If you see the mental model spaces above, you can see that 'wash clothes' is one part of taking care of clothes. We could clearly see that laundry doesn't just mean using a washing machine only. In other words, pushing the power button on the machine is not the first step of doing laundry and It can happen from when people put their clothes in the hamper or even before when they shop clothes. So we tried to see the whole laundry experience and distill the user insights.
FINDING OPPORTUNITIES
Based on the mental model diagram, we developed opportunity areas. From all the opportunities, we discussed with the washer design team and product planning team for narrowing down to focus better and decided to the opportunities that we can develop into control panel with more feasibility and least change of the current features.
Those areas were
; SIMPLE UI, CLEAR INDICATORS FOR OPTIONS, CUSTOMIZATION, FEEDBACK FROM WASHER.
OPPORTUNITY MAP
After we decided where we wanted to focus, we set the UX problems and points to redesign the control panel with clear directions.
INFORMATION
INTERACTION
VISUAL
Confused naming for features
Hidden operation order
Too much information
Inconsistency
Distraction input & output
Unclear Instruction
Low visibility
Unintuitive feedback
Scattered layout
UX DIRECTIONS
DESIGN & PROTOTYPES
NEW CONTROL PANEL CONCEPTS
Based on UX directions, we made four new control panel concepts.
1. PLAIN
2. TWO-FACE
3. LINE + ABLE
4. FLIP
FINAL DESIGN
"SENSATIONS OF THE ORDINARY"
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PUI & UI GUIDELINE
1. Basic structure of the control panel
Here are the main features of new design.
-
Consist of three parts as the orders of operation
- Selecting cycle | Display | Optional Features -
Simpler jog dial with main key cycles
-
Provided display to give users clear feedback as user select
-
Minimized the buttons
- Used three toggle button for changing values and setting
2. Jog dial
We redesigned the jog dial with providing most of current features and kept it simple. We displayed three key cycles that user use most based on the research; Normal, Heavy Duty, Delicates.
Also, We categorized cycles as two; special and fabric.
3. Change options, Settings, etc.
FINAL MOCK-UP
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LEARNINGS
When I heard this project for the first time, I thought it's going to be all or nothing. It was really tricky project because there must be reasons why washer control panel design hasn't been evolved much from the very first design. However, if you can find out what people really think importantly and their ground needs & motivation, there are still so many potentials to change in better ways. That's where UX design roles.
Also, it was the first time to apply qualitative research method and learned what you can get from it and how to use this method. I was quite surprised what people think about laundry because it was not only about operating washer. It was about "TAKING CARE ABOUT CLOTHES". Instead of focusing on finding solutions only, we need to focus more on what kind of problems are there.