BIBO
NOVA
Bibo heats, chills and filters water instantly at the touch of a button.
Designworks provided the industrial design, engineering and interface design to deliver the ambitious upgrades Bibo envisaged for their second such product, Nova.
The outcome is a streamlined user experience concealing innovative thermodynamic engineering that optimises energy efficiency performance, whilst minimising the product’s footprint in the home or workplace.
A range of initial form concepts were proposed from the playful to the professional, each retaining key elements of the visual DNA of Nova’s predecessor, Bibo Classic.
To judge the experience of these early updates, the team trialled different forms in the appropriate context of use using card and foam physical models.
There were some very straightforward ways to add user-benefits to the new device. Raising the dispense head position for Nova increased its versatility, now accommodating carafes and large vacuum bottles. As some customers often used the top face of the legacy product as a work surface, a textured mat was added that was durable, hygienic and neatly concealed user-serviceable parts that are accessed via the top face.
Alongside the updates that improved the user experience on the outside, a host of novel innovations were made inside of the product. In order to achieve any desired temperature across a range of 90 degrees, hot and cold water are blended as the device dispenses. Nova combines both immersion and flash heating to remain energy efficient, meanwhile staying ready to instantaneously dispense near-boiling water at all times.
The engineering team conducted thermodynamic finite element analysis to design the fluidic manifold, the point at which the hot and cold streams meet. Additionally, for a calm and quiet dispense, the path of the water was vented to achieve a smooth laminar flow, in contrast to the turbulence of many competitor products that splash and bubble. Despite including these novel functional features, the volume and footprint of the product was tightly constrained. Accordingly the many internal elements were ingeniously organised and the few remaining gaps were filled with slots to stow the device’s custom tools.
To minimise latent energy consumption, Bibo will sleep until a PIR sensor detects someone has approached, and users can additionally specify the quiet periods in their home or workplace, when it will enter a further energy conservation mode.
