Philips SpeedPro range | Cordless wet and dry vacuum
Year of design: 2017-2018
Date of launch: Q1 2019
Development time: 12 - 18 months
Target group: Consumer, Asia/Europe
Award
iF Design Award 2020 - Philips SpeedPro range, Vacuum cleaner
Red Dot Design Award 2020 - Philips Speedpro range, Cordless Vacuum Cleaners
DFA Design for Asia Awards 2020 - Merit Award - Philips Speedpro range
Product Introduction
Philips SpeedpPro rechargeable stick vacuum cleaner range is designed for millennials who live in a compact urban environment, are squeezed for time and like products with strong aesthetic appeal.
The range includes two key propositions - 2in1 (dry proposition) and 3in1 (wet & dry proposition).
The 2in1 proposition provides a fast clean, with powerful reach. With a slim archetype, it easily cleans floors including hard-to-reach areas, with less effort. PowerCyclone 7 and a 180° Suction LED nozzle deliver superior cleaning performance from open spaces to the most difficult areas, such as wall edges, plinths and corners. Up to 50 mins runtime ensures plenty of coverage for a cozy and welcoming home.
On top of the 2in1 proposition, with a simple switch to the unique vacuum and mop nozzle, the 3in1 proposition helps to remove multiple dirt types and up to 99% of bacteria in one go. Controlled water release maintains optimal wetness for all hard floors throughout the cleaning. The AquaBoost pedal enables to clean tougher dirt faster.
Design Statement
Philips SpeedPro is designed to strengthen Philips’ competitiveness in mid-end price segment in key markets such as China, DACH and CEE. targeting relatively young audience 25-35 y.o., who lives in a scocial and modern lifestyle yet care about their health and home comfort.
The design took a clear consumer centered process. The project started with collecting insights from target audience, through user reseach, home visit, ratings & reviews scan. Focus group of high-end product Philips SpeedPro Max is also organized, where feedback is carefully collected for evaluation.
In the end, four pillars are identified to be the key value of the final design
1. Compactness - Smaller handheld and nozzle footprint, it can enter all the difficult areas in crowded urban living context.
2. Light weight - Lighter product weight is valued over the product runtime considering real home scenarios. Design, technical and ergonomic choices are all made to minimize the weight at hand to achieve the best experience in use.
3. Aesthetic - Appearance is as important as perforance for this target group. We tuned down the design language and innovated on CMF strategy to fit better the audience.
4. Afforability - 'To be the first cordless stick' for the target group. A lot of design choices are made through the project to enable a lower product cost price
Design challenges
1. Design language
The first challenges in the project is expanding the design language from the hero launch Philips SpeedPro Max to the mid end with clear laddering and strong consistency throughout the Floor Care portfolio.
The language should also be unique and recognizable- having a clear differentiation with competitors, and illustrating a clear Philips design signature.
2. Platformization
Philips SpeedPro is built on the estabilished Philips SpeedPro Max platform, which means there comes a lot of constrains with the identical product architecture, same usability requirements, shared components, standard interfaces or even common parts. Working under these constrains yet keeping a distinctive proposition becomes another main challenge for design.
Design process
The design follows a typical UCD process with four clear stages - Discover, Frame, Define & Validate.
I started with gathering knowledge from portfolio, consumer needs, competitors and technical priniples. Later, the learnings are framed via propositions concepts, design sketches, archetype directions, and translated into feasible design directions. By have consumer tests in target markets, the concepts are carefully evaluated to form the final direction for the project. Dummies, functional models and engineer builds are also validated in terms of design, function and usability till the product launch.
Product launch and commercial materials
Acknowledgement:
Peter Smith, Global Creative Lead, Philips
Jeriel Bobbe, Freelance Product Designer
Joerka Koenders, Freelance Art Director Trend Lab, Philips
Alehandra Iorgut, Consumer Marketing Manager, Philips
