Problem
20.4 billion kg of small electrical appliances are thrown away yearly.
Only 12% gets recycled.
When an appliance breaks, users face an impossible choice:
Attempt to fix it, and break even further or, throw it away.
Most choose disposal,
not from lack of care or capability, but because repair has been deliberately designed out of the experience.
As everyday technologies grow more opaque, people are losing agency over the objects that shape their daily lives, while fixable appliances end up in landfills
Opportunity
To curtail the flow of e-waste into landfills,
redesigning for repair reduces harmful environmental impact and empowers daily user's repair competency.
Goal
Design a small appliance that can be repaired, keeping it out of landfills and in homes.
Research
To understand why and how people repair,
I conducted in-person interviews and online surveys. They revealed motivations and setbacks on the act of repairing.
To understand how repair happens in context of disassembly and troubleshooting,
I took apart an electric kettle, and documented my findings, noting the key internal mechanisms and teardown pain points.
To help define the direction of this product,
I mapped the global market and found an existing segment: well-designed, essential feature kettles.
No kettle on the market prioritized repairability or lifecycle sustainability
These products are mechanically simple enough to repair,
but the placement of single use clips and permanent adhesive make the disassembly of the product destructive or impossible.
I took inspiration from traditional kettles,
as well as other forms. I was inspired by the simple, single material designs found from antiquity and museums.
I sketched many iterations to explore form and interaction opportunities.
I initially constrained myself to the classical proportions of an electric kettle to promote realism. My final form broke away from that to take inspiration from traditional kettles.
