Design of an air purifier : -with focus on function and aesthetic design

Abstract: Poor indoor air quality is commonly foundin homes in larger cities, and is the result of agrowing industrialization that pollutes the airwe breathe with contaminants like industrialdust, smog and other particles from traffic. Thesolution from a user perspective, is to use an airpurifier that clean the air from these particlesinside the user’s home. An air purifier can alsobe used to ease annoyance for people sufferfrom allergies. However, most air purifiers onthe market today are made with one-time usefilters that eventually ends up in landfill, and incura regular cost for the consumers. This master thesis concerns the design and developmentof the next generation of air purifiersfor indoor use. The project has been conductedwith a human centered design processand an eco-design approach. The developmentof this project contain several different methodscommonly used in a design process, which havebeen used in order to achieve a result that istrustworthy and in line with user needs. The project was done in Nansha, China, incooperation with Raymond Industrial Ltd. Thecompany is focused on the development andmanufacturing of home appliances such as airpurifiers, air humidifiers, shavers, trimmers etc. The customers of Raymond Industrial are largercompanies like Philips, Hitachi, Honeywell,Panasonic, and Remington. The project resulted in an air purifier conceptthat is developed to be sustainable and fulfill userrequirements. With input from users togetherwith our own preferences, the air purifier is designedto blend in with home furnishings andstill express cleanliness. Some areas where wefound today’s air purifiers to be deficient havealso been improved, such as the whole experiencewhen cleaning/replacing filters togetherwith an interface that is easy to understand anduse. The project also resulted in a patent applicationfor a new type of filter that the users can cleanthemselves without the need to continuouslybuy new filters. The filter also consume less energy,is smaller and more compact than competitorson the market. This leads to less materialuse which results in less negative environmentalimpact.