Transforming the experience of vaping

Overview

Many users find vaping lacks the ritual and experience associated with smoking - a defined time period, rolling a cigarette, or enjoying as a reward after a long day.

I led a team of designers to carry out user research, and work closely with toxicologists, business analysts and a product owner to design an innovative, experience-driven alternative to smoking.

Process

Early feedback highlighted the need for innovation and an emphasis on sensory experience rather than just function. We surveyed the client's customer base to understand user needs and organised them into coherent groups. We prioritised user needs based on frequency and mapped them onto high-level features. This led to three defined product directions, supported by narratives to align aesthetics, function, and experience with user needs and business goals.

We generated multiple concepts for each direction and closely collaborated with toxicologists to ensure concepts were technically feasible. Internal design reviews narrowed down concepts to four, which were refined through 3D visualisations and prototypes.

Initial rendered concepts

Development sketches

User testing sessions and surveys were used to gather qualitative and quantitative feedback on the concepts, and the preferred concepts were refined and developed with input from toxicologists, electrical engineers, business analysts and the product owner.

Development prototype

Final prototype

Outcomes

• Positive user testing feedback from both smokers and vape users
• New consumable method taken forward for further development and patents
• "Look and feel" prototype used to gain buy-in for next phase of development