Swoppy - An ergonomically designed 2-in-1 domestic cleaner
Academic Project - Product Design • Role: design research, synthesis, lots of writing, user interviews
Challenge
- A latest study by Dyson reveals that Indian households may not be as clean as people think them to be. This scenario is such even after cleaning the house regularly using traditional methods - sweeping and mopping.
- Generally in Indian households, cleaning is a two step time consuming manual process which includes repetitive manual motion.
- In long run, housewives and house-helps suffer from musculoskeletal disorders due to poor body posture and non-ergonomic cleaning devices.
Role
I contributed to the project as team leader and researcher. It was a 5 member team - 1 researcher, 2 product designers, 1 visual designer and 1 electronics engineer.
Scope
The scope of the project was limited to urban households with uniform and flat floorings which can be swept and mopped.
Approach
Results
Swoppy is a semi-automated domestic floor cleaning device that sweeps, mops, and dries the floor in one pass, minimising the number of repetitive movements and improving efficiency.
Task Analysis and Problem Identification
- 70% of the domestic helps between the age 25 to 45 suffer from improper posture, muscle strain or carpel tunnel syndrome.
- 80% of domestic helps observe swelling in feet due to long standing hours.
- 50% suffer either from skin related issues or dust related issues.
- An average household of about 1000-1200 sq ft daily requires around 2 hours of manual efforts to sweep and mop.
Need - Opportunity Mapping
| Need | Opportunity |
|---|---|
| Easy to carry, light weight cleaning equipment | Ergonomic design, dust and water storage |
| Minimize repetitive motion | Sweeping, mopping and drying in one go |
| Increased efficiency with reduced manual efforts | Automatic/Semi-automatic device |
| Easy to clean, minimum skin contact | Modular, easy to clean parts |
Design Brief
To design a semi-automatic modular ergonomic domestic floor cleaning device for urban Indian households which sweeps, mops and dries the floor in one go.
Conceptualisation
Mood Board
Form Exploration
Proposed Solution
Features