Novel Fog Catcher

Product design

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Context

Permalution

Year

2024

Tools

CAD (Onshape)

Summary

Designed a novel fog harvesting mesh for a Canadian startup that outperformed the water yield of the existing mesh by 92% in a dedicated test set-up, through the implementation of mesh geometry changes and multiple layers of hydrophobic material. Validated design in a wind tunnel before travelling to Peru to install a large-scale version of the novel mesh design for field testing.

Athene is creative, simple and secure. The sphere represents a seamless experience - an attempt to reduce the cryptic nature that naturally runs deep in this space.

I focused on soft edges, rounding the 'a' and 'n'. Created by layering several mesh gradients, the logo's colours are similar to those of a bubble, offering a sense of familiarity.

Problem

The process to onboard a new user required a 40-minute, 1:1 video call with a Hestia team member. This process was time-consuming and not scalable.

Goal

Craft a journey that efficiently communicates and demonstrates the core value of our product to leave users with a lasting first-impression.

Constraints

Must be implemented within a 2-week time-frame
Must be an online process due to social distancing requirements
Must not require additional budget allocation

Design Process

1. Design Brief

‍To verify that the onboarding was a top product priority, a design brief was prepared to explore the problem at hand. The first step was to define the problem – an expansive step. It is important to ensure that the root problem is identified because if not, the rest of the project will crumble, lacking the strong foundational base that keeps it in-line. Even worse, the final solution will be solving the wrong problem.
After defining the problem, the rest of the brief explained why we care about solving the problem now, how we could tackle the problem, what potential solutions could look like, and lastly how we are going to measure success for our solution.

2. Design Sprint

With the design brief in hand, the team was ready for a 1-day intensive design sprint. The team consisted of a product manager, two developers, one content strategist and myself, as product designer.
To help the team align on the problem we were trying to solve, we started the sprint by asking the following questions:

What is the problem we are trying to solve?
What are the biggest problems and risks associated with this project?
How could we fail?

These questions allowed the team to align on the problem, to identify the riskiest unknowns, and to clearly shed light on the points of potential failure. Next, the team moved on to the question:

How might we?

Each member sketched a new user onboarding flow and then presented it to the team. The strongest points from each presentation were combined to make the final design. The new user flow was sketched in a low fidelity prototype.

3. High-fidelity prototype

‍The design sprint established the onboarding flow and steps, which meant it was time to get my hands dirty in the design details. After numerous sketches, abundant research, and several iterations, the final design was prototyped in Figma, design peer-reviewed, and ready to be handed off to development.

4. User testing & iteration

After the design was handed off for development and the fully functional onboarding was ready, it was time for user testing. The onboarding was tested on people aged 14-60, with most attention placed on the teenagers’ experiences since they are the target end user. We conducted user calls to observe emotional reactions, identify points of confusion, take note of technical bugs, and get a sense of their experience through a series of questions. This process was extremely helpful in correct small issues, ensuring the onboarding was ready for launch.‍

Post-launch

The launch of the new onboarding was definitely not the last step of the project. Since the onboarding plays such a critical role in long-term user retention, it was very important to continue evaluating its performance, iterating where necessary. We did this in three ways:
1. New-user research calls
2. Automated surveys
3. Retention tracking

Results

The onboarding allowed the team to kickstart outreach and begin growing the Hestia user base. The onboarding achieved a 91.38% completion rate and allowed Hestia to increase the monthly active users by 80% in the first month of launch. The automated post-onboarding surveys returned an average score of 4.12/5 for ease of use.

Current solution

Permalution employs passive Raschel meshes to harvest water from fog, offering a sustainable solution to water scarcity.

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Objective

Develop a novel mesh design that surpasses the water yield performance of the Raschel mesh, while being durable, quick to produce, affordable and sustainable.

1 - Project Scope: Design & Validation

2 - Next Steps: Field-Testing in Peru

3 - End Goal: Global Deployment

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Novel Mesh Design

The proposed mesh uses concepts from fog harps and vertical textured filament mesh designs.

Material Selection:

Hydrophobic wires
Durable material to withstand high wind speeds

Geometric Design:

Absence of horizontal cross-members that restrict waterflow
Multi-layer geometry to promote turbulent air flow and provide a larger collection area

Predicting Water Collection Rate

To inform the geometry of the new mesh, virtual simulations were run to gauge the relative water collection rates of alternative mesh geometries.

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Testing Water Collection Rate

The team built a wind tunnel to compare mesh designs in a controlled environment. Wind speed and fog input were controlled and temperature and humidity were measured for consistency between trials.

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Result: Novel Mesh Increases Water Yield

92% increase in water yield.

The novel mesh meets the design objectives and offers a solution that has the potential to better address water scarcity worldwide.

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Field implementation

The team travelled to Peru to install a large scale version of the Raschel Mesh and the novel mesh design. The fog harvesting devices will be monitored over an extended period to compare their respective water yields.

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