Havells Thesis Project

I was tasked with designing a kitchen fan for Indian homemakers and maids underserved by existing research, I led a semester-long project using the Double Diamond process, conducting interviews, observations, and over 150+ concept sketches. After prototyping and multiple feedback loops, 2 of my final concepts were selected by the Havells CXD team for further development.

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Link to Project

About the Company

Havells India Limited is an Indian multinational Fast Moving Electrical Goods (FMEG) company founded in Noida in 1958. It has established itself as a trusted brand known for quality, reliability, and innovation. Havells entered the fans segment in 2003 and emerged as the fastest-growing and most trusted among the top two players in the country.

In 2023, Havells was recognised as one of the “Top 50 Best Indian Brands” and launched the designer Amaya ceiling fan that won “Product of the Year”. Havells previously also launched Stealth Air, which won the “CII Design Excellence Award in 2018”. Havells products are also catered to the Indian market, and their innovative IoT variant Trinity - I comes with ‘Smart-Mode’ features that sense temperature and humidity in the room and adjusts the fan speed accordingly. Havells portfolio coupled with their commitment to customer satisfaction, exploring kitchen fans for circulation comfort would be an interesting venture.

Project Goal

The aim of this project is to design and develop a range of Fans for Kitchen. My concept was to Design fans catering towards homemaker’s needs and wants. There is a research data gap for people who cook at homes versus people working in kitchens even though there are maids who cook in home for 10-12 hours a day.

While there is research on the long-term effects of heat exposure and standing for a long time in the context of chefs in restaurants and cooks, there aren’t many studies done on the long-term impact on women who cook for their families every day. Therefore, this project addresses the wants and needs of women cooking in the kitchen, whether homemakers or maids. Things such as their height, ideal temperature, and effects of exposure to toxins will be studied and taken into account while designing the product, as well as their experiences while cooking in the kitchen.

Summary of My Work

During this semester long project, I conducted an entire double diamond process to design a kitchen fan for the Indian market. As seen in the image below, there was a weekly goal set for the outcome to be expected from each stage of the double diamond process including the Discover, Define,
Develop and Deliver stages.

The Discover consisted if Primary and Secondary Research.
- The Primary research included: Interviews, Day in the life of observations, Shadowing, Behavioural Mapping.
- The Secondary research included: Benchmarking, Competitor Analysis and Secondary Mapping.
The Define process included gathering insights from the research, creating themes and mood boards and designing the How Might We’s.
The Develop phase included Brainstorming, doing 150+ sketches, storyboarding, low and mid fidelity prototyping, and analysing product pricing.
The Deliver phase included designing high fidelity prototypes, 3D models and mockups based on the feedback given by the Havells representatives on the low and mid fidelity prototypes. Out of the 10 low fidelity and 5 mid fidelity prototypes shortlisted, the Havells CXD team selected 2 final
concepts to further deliver.

Tools and Skills used

The digital tools used during this project were Adobe Illustrator, Fusion and Blender.

The skills used were Sketching 2D and 3D models with shadows, lightings and colours kept in consideration, 3D modelling of the fans, low and mid fidelity prototyping with cardboards, sunboards, corrugated sheets MDF etc and wood working to create the final functioning prototype.

The digital tools used during this project were Adobe Illustrator, Fusion and Blender.

Adobe Illustrator

Fusion

Blender

Sketching

3D Modelling

Prototyping

Key Learnings

Through the thesis project, I learnt new skills such as sketching industrial products in 2D, 3D and perspective, 3D modelling functional products and working with different materials such as wood, cardboard, signboard, themrocol etc for low, mid and high fidelity prototyping.

From the research phase I also learnt that the value of conducting day in the life of and shadowing studies to analyse how much time the target audience spends and interacts with the kitchen. This helped me in the long term to keep in mind how the architecture of people’s kitchen affects airflow and therefore their experience while cooking. This information would be otherwise difficult to obtain just through interviews.

Results

From the final 10 concepts shortlisted, the Havells CXD team selected 2 products to explore further and deliver. The project was based on the kitchen fan being able to adapt to different heights, cater to different climates and provide a cooling effect to the user. During the exhibition, upon being able to interact with my target audience, I received positive feedback on the fans feature of being adaptable, inclusive and cooling.