We create products that highlight the beauty of everyday experiences, by removing unnecessary complexity.
Unnecessary Complexity
Some of the simplest things in our lives are overcomplicated. At times we don’t even notice how involved things are, but it takes a toll; either in time, money or the need for more attention.
Many common, everyday products and processes have grown unnecessarily complex. We often see examples of over-engineered solutions for simple activities.
Frequently the company behind the product is looking to sell ‘convenience’. But the truth is that this is commonly only an apparent convenience.
Making coffee is a good illustration of over-engineered solutions. See the bottom of this page for a brief example.
Simple Beauty in Everyday Experiences
We thought about how to make a cup of coffee from a different perspective. Doing things as simply as possible, but in a smart way, so that the experience is rewarding. Turning our attention to making coffee was an obvious focus area for us, and we quickly decided that the pour-over method was our starting point. In concept, it’s the simplest way; but it was not without its issues.
We looked at the fundamentals of the process and developed a new way to make coffee – encapsulated pour-over (EPO) – that always brews great coffee with about 30 seconds of hands-on time. It eliminates the issues associated with the normal pour-over process.
The Simple Smart Coffee (SSC) Brewer that is being launched this summer, is a great example of what we strive to do. You will soon be able read more about the EPO method here.
The Whole Experience
As we look at the entire process from the user’s perspective, there is other step in making coffee … getting fresh, ground coffee into the brewer.
So we have a complimentary product in the final stages of design and testing, that we hope to launch in late 2024. This second product addresses the challenge in the same fundamental ways, rethinking the process to come up with the simple, smart solution.
Immortal Products
By focusing on simple solutions, we are able to work towards another of our goals - creating products that will last a lifetime. By focusing on simple design and selecting the best materials, we are able to deliver products that should never need to be replaced.
An Example - Making Coffee
Everybody will agree that making a cup of coffee should be a simple process. Yet we are increasingly using little capsules or pods of coffee in specialist and overcomplicated devices.
Even the basic machines have a lot of parts – look at this diagram of a typical and relatively simple one. This doesn’t take account of the electronics, pumps, heating systems, etc. included in the body! There is a how extra layer of complexity under this exploded parts diagram.
This sort of product is sold as ‘convenient’ because the user just has to put in a pod, ensure there is water in the machine, put a cup in position, push a button and finally remove and dispose of the used pod. (We’ll ignore the effort needed to clean the machine.) But how much time and effort does this really save? And at what cost?
Obviously, there is the cost of the machine, which is not trivial. And it will not last forever, so there will be replacement costs. But most importantly there’s the cost of the coffee pods! Depending on the coffee you drink, if you make just two cups a day on average, you can be spending between $250 and $300 a year extra compared to buying the coffee ground or as whole beans.
How much time does it take you to earn that extra money … after tax? Do you really save any time?
Most people haven’t worked out whether it’s worth it.
