A well-designed product must rely on solid market research. In this case, I kept my client updated on all stages of my design and development of my product, and asked him for feedback and evaluation at every stage. This allowed me to design the automatic watering system as fully as possible to his specifications and wishes.

Gathering Feedback

The first stage of the design process was identifying a potential product that will address a problem the client encounters in daily life, and collecting the necessary data and doing research that will allow me to brainstorm a possible solution. As my client has difficulty ensuring his balcony plants are watered when he is away on conference trips and vacation, he desires a watering system that can temporarily cover his needs. Thus, a product that would do this automatically could be a potential solution.

Product Research

Research on existing products is also extremely valuable as I can derive inspiration from them, as well as improve upon some of their weakness that would be insufficient to address the client’s needs. For example, many products I saw had sleek, but complicated interfaces which the client has expressly disliked.