Many consumers, particularly those in developing countries, are concerned about the cleanliness of municipal water for human consumption. For this reason, distilled water is widely available at work, and water purifiers such as the water pitcher shown here are increasingly common at home. There are many brands on the market such as Brita, Aquasana, Pur, and so on. Most of the household water purifiers are based on adsorption using activated carbon and ion-exchange resins to remove organics and metal ions from tap water. Some also use UV irradiation to destroy pathogens.

In this project, you will apply the product design concepts and methods covered in Chapters 1 and 5 to design a home-use water pitcher. Following the multidisciplinary framework, the first step is to carry out a market study to determine the market size, the desired product attributes, and the product attributes of competing products, among others. This is followed by conceptualizing the desired product and making a decision on the desired market share. Methods such as House of Quality and Business Model Canvas, and design procedure for devices are to be used. The product ingredients and structure should be identified. Product specifications are to be determined by model-based methods or experiments. Specifically, your report should cover the following:

(a) What is your product and its functions?

(b) What is the market position of your product (e.g., market size, major companies selling this and related products, comparison of your product with competing products, potentially innovative products)?

(c) What are the product specifications [e.g., product appearance, product structure, the ingredients, the amounts of the ingredients, energy consumption (if any)]?

(d) How is the product manufactured?