Product improvement Dyson airblade

Dyson Airblade case study

Very powerful fan however the water drips onto the floor and the fan pushes the water off your skin. This can create a wet surface on the floor which can be slippy. Could you design an attachment to collect the water and stop it going on the floor. Think about what happens to that water. Where does it go? How do you dispose of it? How often? Can it be recycled? What does the research say about this fan? The version on the left is the mark 5 version and the photo on the right is the orginal version.

The Dyson Airblade dB is a high speed jet-stream hand dryer, designed and produced by Dyson, a company that aims to use technology to 'sleek-ify' (and better) otherwise incredibly mundane household items. I remember the first time I used this hand dryer (imagine that - the experience of using this hand dryer was so unique that I remembered it) and I actually loved it. I remember thinking that this was literally the best hand dryer I had ever used and was excited for a future of public bathrooms with only this hand dryer. I continued thinking this way for many years, until about a few months ago, when a friend asked if I had any ideas of "good products" for her to talk about during her product management interview. I mentioned this hand dryer, only to be met with a face of disgust and a "I hate those hand dryers." Needless to say, I was quite surprised, because I had never considered that anyone would dislike this product, but also curious as to why she disliked them so much. And so, we embark on a journey to figure out these controversial hand dryers

user base

Let's start with the basics. Who could use this?

Everyone and anyone who uses a public bathroom, ever. That's a lot of people.

what do these people even want?

In asking users what they looked in a hand drying experience, these qualities came up repeatedly:

Fast
Effective at drying
Not too loud
Hygienic

dyson's claims: features that make it stand out

It's the only hand dryer with a bacteria filter, making it the most hygienic and the only that is approved for the food industry.
Claims an impressive (for a hand dryer) 12 second dry time.
Built to last
Cheaper-- in the long run (up to 75% less expensive than other hand dryers; up to 97% less expensive than paper towels.
Produces much less waste than single-use paper towels, and produces up to 79% less carbon dioxide than other hand dryers.

intended user experience?

User 1

Really prioritises dryness of hands - will wait longer for dry hands
Likes the Airblade better than other hand dryers, but not more than paper towels
Has problems with the Airblade drying all parts of the hand - utilizes a hand curling method within the Airblade to distribute "wetness" on hand and mitigate this

User 2

Really dislikes accidentally touching the sides and bottom of Airblade; says strong concentrated air flow as well as small volume of hand space within dryer causes this
Feels as though the Airblade does not completely dry hands; is not able to span the whole hand

User 3

Also really hates touching the sides of the Airblade
States that the hand motion and position is very awkward
Feels like the hand dryer does not completely dry hands -- wishes the airflows were more distributed

compiled: pros and cons

Pros

Eco-friendly
Automatically activates
Generally faster than other hand dryers

Cons

Feels unhygienic; easy to accidentally touch the sides
Takes a while for the sensor to kick in
Still slower than paper towels
Only dries certain parts of the hand - airflow too concentrated
Louder than paper towels and most hand dryers
Awkward motion/position of hands

Overarching problems

big problem 1: the hand dryer feels unhygienic

One of the biggest complaints regarding the Airblade was that it was way too easy to touch the sides of the hand dryer when in use. One reason that this would occur is because the volume of the hand drying space was too cramped, making it easy to bump into the sides. The second reason for this is because the high velocity of the jet stream of air often caused hands to bump back and forth within the hand dryer. You can see this happening to user 2 in the gif below.

This phenomenon is ultimately a problem in hygiene for the users. While Dyson can say on their website that they have a bacteria filter inside of the Airblade and post videos of microbiologists defending the cleanliness of the dryer (see here), the everyday user is still unaware. For users, the just the feeling of touching something that others have in the bathroom is enough to make a process feel gross, and thus Dyson needs to work on making it clear through the product itself that the Airblade is hygenic.

big problem 2: the hand dryer doesn't completely dry hands

The second biggest complaint was that the Airblade didn't completely dry users' hands. More specifically, users noted that oftentimes, the air was so concentrated along that thin, thin line that the Airblade's drying power was not able to span their entire hand. Bother Users 2 and 3 gave up early (and didn't want to spend the extra time drying) and left with semi-wet hands. User 1 compensated for this incomplete drying by curling her hands together inside the Airblade to better "distribute" the moisture on her hands. You can see her do this in the image below.

Ultimately, the Airblade needs to have a greater area span, as users often reported that it was not able to dry their fingers as well as it did other, more central parts of their hands.

Preliminary redesign

So how can we make this hand dryer better? Below is a sketch of a preliminarily redesigned version of the Airblade that aims to prevent people from accidentally touching it (addressing big problem #1) and that has two air different air blades on each side, in an effort to reach more parts of the hand (addressing big problem #2).

In this image, the compartment labeled 1 houses all of the components (bacteria filter, motors) necessary to make the Airblade as powerful as it currently is. The componenet labeled 2 indicates that an extra "airblade" is added to each side of the hand dryer, in an effort to extend the dryer's drying power to more parts of the hands. As can be seen in the side view, the sets of two airblades (indicated by the large dots on the circles with arrows pointing out) are angled differently because of the circular nature of the part that they are on, and hopefully this difference in angle will also help in reaching different parts of the hands. Projected air flow of the "airblades" can be see in the part of the diagram indicated as 4, with the arrows representing the path of air.

The part of the image labeled 3 tries to make it less easy to mistakenly touch the dryer. First, there is an increased distance between the two sides of the hand dryer to allow the user more space. Secondly, as much of the side material of the dryer has been removed, and been replaced with a "T" design, with the airblades on the upper part of the "T." This reduction in walls will hopefully prevent users from bumping into the walls of the dryer like they did previously. Finally, as can be seen in the side view, users no longer have to awkwardly stick their hands down vertically. Instead, the hand dryer is now angled to hopefully make the process less awkward.

The redesigned Dyson Airblade, that might hopefully start to address the concerns of the dissenting users. Quite an enlightening journey, as I finally see why some might really dislike such a product. Has it changed my view? No, I don't think so. I still really, really, really like this hand dryer.