Modelling and Prototyping

This week I dove into Rhino and started trying to see if I could make the basic shape of my coffee machine. As it turns out, Rhino isn't as daunting as I once thought, and once you understand how it works, it's actually pretty awesome to use.

There was however a couple things I couldn't figure out:

• For some reason the fillet tool wouldn't work after I had sliced part of a shape, so I wasn't able to get the nice rounded edges I was looking for
• The fillet at the front should be rounded at the top, sort of slanted inwards, which proved very difficult
• Attatching the button to the front of the machine proved tricky
• Working with see-through materials like glass was tricky in the render, because it was hard to see their outlines
• I wasn't able to figure out how to add a glass shape to house the coffee beans at the top

Hopefully these are all things I can work out by talking to Jason on Tuesday.

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After doing some research and moodboarding on Pinterest, I decided I really liked the style of Dieter Rams' products for Braun in the 1960s. To me, they're simple, timeless and elegant. After putting together a mood board, I decided to watch the documentary about Dieter Rams and his principles for good design. I learnt a lot of interesting things from that:

Good design is honest – this means that the product shouldn't look like something its not. In most cases for braun (making homeNo flaunty design, no extra gimmick design elements to make the design look flashy.

Good design is sustainable – That means the product should last a long time, be made out of high quality materials and be fixable – a few times he mentions modularity

No instruction manual – The product should explain itself. 99% of the time, nobody bothers to read the instruction manual anyway.

‍Grandma could use it

My personal principles of design are that anyone in the world could walk up to a device and understand how to use it – that doesn't mean they have to understand how it works. Most of the time, design seems magic to the average person – think the iPhone or the car – most people don't understand how they work, they understand which buttons do what, but not what the button actually does, or how a gearbox works.

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'Less, but better' is Dieters famous quote, and it's the approach I'd like to take with my coffee machine – rather than try and think of some elaborate industrial design, I want to solve the problems of current coffee machines, and what holds everyone in the world back from owning a coffee machine. Obviously this approach works well for our brief of making a coffee machine for home use – I think I wouldn't be so concerned with usability if I knew someone who knew how to use a coffee machine was going to use mine.

This week I've been thinking in depth about our brief. We've been tasked to create an espresso machine for home use. What does that mean exactly? For instance, a Nespresso machine technically counts as an espresso machine, and they've been far more successful and popular as home use coffee machines. Would we have met the brief and have done a great job if we came up with Nespresso? I certainly hope that's what this course is encouraging – to go beyond the portafilter and think about the fundamental problems with traditional ways of making coffee. Nespressso is by no means perfect, but its proved that consumers don't care about the art of coffee – they just want a pick-me-up in the morning in the absolute easiest way possible.

This year I moved into a flat with my good friend Tom. Tom was a barista over summer, and he brought with him a Breville coffee machine made for home use for us to enjoy. At home I used a Moccamaster filter coffee machine, and that certainly had its downsides, but what I was surprised to realise is just how many steps are involved in making a single cup of coffee.

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So, lets compare these machines:

Problems with Nespresso machines

• Still not instantly obvious what has to be done to make coffee
• Never know where the water is
• Totally unsustainable
• Hard to repair
• Not all cups fit under the spouts
• Can’t use your own coffee/unsustainable/reliant on organisation

Problems with Moccamaster/filter machines

• You have to measure out ingredients for each coffee every time
• You have to remember the ratios
• Not at all instantly obvious what to do

Problems with traditional espresso machines

• Hard to use and intimidating for a beginner – information has to be taught
• So many steps involved
• So hard to clean
• Never know how full the water level is
• Too many buttons
• Parts have worn out, too hard to fix

Problems with automatic espresso machines

• Ugly
• Large
• Too many buttons
• Does the coffee taste that good?

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So, now we know what not to do, we can probably work out the principles of what would make a good coffee machine:

• Simple – the less buttons and controls the better
• One step process – all you should have to do is one thing, no measuring, tamping, scraping or moving
• Obvious – anyone should be able to walk up and make a coffee with no prior knowledge of the machine
• Sustainable – easy to fix parts should they ever break
• Environmentally friendly – no coffee pods or subscription services
• Not relying on a company – again, not having to rely on a proprietary method of getting your coffee (as Nespresso has done)

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