WAKA disposable e-cigarette
Eco-friendly
We discovered that our client base is highly overlapping the group of people that takes more care on environmental protection. While the disposable nature of the product will be one of the disadvantages when it comes to marketing, I tried to find ways to make the product more eco-friendly and being easy to use at the same time. Therefore, I came up with this design concept with the main advantage of being able to remove the internal battery at disposal. This can also lead to a marketing strategy to lure people to come back and repurchase the product. And unlike the traditional vape pen, this also ensures the quality of the product.
New structure
Having e-cigarette design experience, I realized that most similar product has a common look which the vape is separated into top and bottom halves. Since this project focuses on disposable vapes, we were not limited by some restrictions that normal vapes need to follow when it comes to design. In this concept, the top and bottom halves are separated in a way that's not commonly seen in vape designs. Users can only open the device for recycling the internal battery and the overall structure will be more stable than traditional vape pens.
Recyclable design
After the user finishes the product, by pressing the two buttons near the bottom of the device on each sides, users can easily separate the two parts. Although users cannot change the battery or the oil pod on their own, they can return the battery and other internal parts to the retail store and have a discount on their next purchase as a reward. The design allows users to easily recycle the battery which is unheard of with a disposable e-cigarette. Although the overall product is still not ideal in the sense of environmental protection, it at least provides a comparatively more eco-friendly alternative for the consumers.
Packaging design
Aside from the product design, I also made the packaging design for the product to better demonstrate the retail scenario. I also tried to enhance the visual style with the packaging design to make the product feels more convincing to the end users. Like in the product design, I also utilized the translucent materials in the packaging design which gives the product a futuristic vibe which matches the WAKA's branding. Instead of using colorful printings on the packaging like all other competitors' products do, I limited the color use and gave the packaging design a minimalist look. While the competitors are using the colorful packagings to attract consumers attention, I believe that a minimal design among all other colorful products will actually be more noticeable and lores consumers to pick up the product in a retail store.
Packaging design update
While the original packaging design fits well with the products visual style, we found several major issues with the design after discussion with WAKA. While the original design uses a translucent material for the packaging and the printing is using a minimal design, users can hardly know its content with the packaging. The other problem is for the distribution, the box shape for each e-cigarette would took too much volume which would cause a high shipping cost for the product. I therefore came up with the updated design to tackle with the two issues.
Visible content
By removing the outer box and using only a cardboard and a plastic shell, users can directly see the inside of the packaging now and would have a better knowing of the content on a shelf. The updated packaging will be more welcoming to lure the consumers to pick up the product inside a retail store and the tightly sealed packaging would provide a clean and hygienic image to the product itself.
Reduced shipping fee
While the plastic box is removed from the design, the volume of each packaging drastically reduced. The packaging will become more eco-friendly by the reduced material used for manufacturing the packaging and the shipping cost will be reduced at the same time. I intendedly designed the packaging in a way that two packages can stack together to further reduce the volume for shipment.
Recycled material
During our research on the ways to create a more eco-friendly product, the recycled plastic material came to my attention. Not only using recycled plastic to manufacture the product would be beneficial to the environment, it also creates a cool texture to the surface of the product which makes it looks and feels more delicate and premium.
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