Lova
Arianna Meroni, Mariah Giacchetta, Marcello Iudice, Xiayong Liu, Wen Luo
A.Y. 2019-2020
No more changing clothes when you just drop a little coffee: LOVA quickly clean stains, kill bacteria and remove smells from your clothes with a simple touch and without any water! Thanks to its photocatalytic technology, LOVA just must be placed on the dirty textile to do its job.
Scenario
Shanghai is expected to have a flooding and rainfall rate 20% higher than the global average by 2050. During Mei-yu season, the air gets really humid and the frequency of washing clothes may be affected by difficulties in drying them. Research shows that the city’s water supply safety margin will be zero by 2023. Local authorities will limit the amount of water that can be used by each citizen. Lots of people in China spend a lot of time working and don’t have time and energy for housework. Most of these young workers will live in shared apartments, leading people to avoid having big household appliances to save space. Laundry will be done most of the times outside in a shared facility that every 15 minutes neighborhood circle will provide.
Who is Lova for?
LOVA was created thinking about Ruifu Huang, a young Chinese worker who lives in Shanghai. Ruifu spends a lot of time in his company’s office. He rents an apartment with 2 friends, located in a high-rise building but not far from the subway station. He likes to get things done in an easy and fast way. Ruifu needs to be always ready in case someone from work calls him for a last minute meeting or event.
How does it work?
Photocatalysis is the activity that happens when a light source interacts with the surface of photocatalysts. In our product, the photocatalyst used is Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles. TiO2 nanoparticle is a non-dissolved material which does not dissolve itself when degrades organic compounds and kills germs. The TiO2 coated surface gets in contact with the dirt. The surface under UV light liberates hydroxyl radicals. Hydroxyl radicals decompose organic compounds (dirt). As final products, H2O and CO2 are released.
The service
Our service aims to help people in an unexpected situation by offering LOVA in several locations. It offers the possibility to rent it in one of our stations located in shops, airports, and other host partners. Through the map in our app or website, our service can also bring visibility to these businesses. The value offered with this service is a simple and fast way to solve our user’s problem with an effective and low-cost system. the profit goes to LOVA and a share goes to the business hosting the service. LOVA also helps customers in their path to keep their balance with nature by donating a share of the profits to water conservation projects. Once a customer buys LOVA or uses the rental service, a donation is made to an institution that focuses on water conservation and sustainability.
The product
After exploring many different alternatives, we went to the glove shape as it seemed the most interesting and curious one. We carried on with the design of a product that could fit both left and right-handed people and with the detachable part that the user could bring with him.
My Role
My general role was to be an active part of all processes and phases, from research till the end. My role was to design all the presentations and visuals, to make rendering, to develop branding, to organize and design the booklets, to define the service and develop the UI and the video.
Pains
During the development of this project, the internal communication within the group was very complex to manage. It was the first time I had interacted with a multicultural team, but thanks to a lot of team building and mutual knowledge, we were able to overcome this difficulty.
Takeaways from the project
Through the development of this project, I was able to consolidate my skills in framing a scenario, setting goals, and discovering user needs. I was also able to improve my ability to listen and mediate in a multicultural team.