KALEA is an at home kitchen composting system, currently in kickstarter campaign phase, for which I developed an initial user interface for a companion app. This mobile application enables users monitor the waste chamber volume, set it to automatically empty when full, empty the waste chamber manually, monitor the shredding and composting chambers progress and volume, monitor the volume of the removable compost collection tray, receive a variety of alerts, understand their positive environmental impact, understand what can and can’t be processed using KALEA, and post on and browse a community blog with stories and helpful tips from the KALEA team as well as other users.
Kalea
Overview
Design
We focused on reinforcing KALEA’s modern, yet simple brand identity by using simple shapes, lines, and icons as visual elements. The color palette features a range of subtle orange and greens, to evoke earthy feelings without brown. One of the main qualms with kitchen composting machines on the market is that they poorly masking odors or are not clean. We wanted to set KALEA apart from its competitors by using brighter colors in order to evoke this feeling of cleanliness.
Established Essential Features
From interviews with users and stakeholders I established that the most essential functionalities are:
Monitor the volume in each chamber
The percentage complete that the process is
The time remaining in each chamber
The current readings of all of the sensors (temperature, humidity, ventilation.)
Ability to set the waste chamber to automatically empty or can manually empty it at any time
Choose exactly what alerts they would like to receive (the waste chamber has been emptied, etc.)
Make and read blog posts to establish a sense of community and to provide helpful tips to each other
Interactively learn about how KALEA works as well as their environmental impact
Scroll through or search for foods to find out if they can be processed with KALEA.
Loading screen to establish KALEA app brand, with an image showing some foods that can be composted but also looks clean and simple.
The home page incorporates the app branding and is for managing the user's KALEA machine and the providing all additional information users could want
Status page designed to provide users with all of the information about the overall current status of their compost and keep them involved in the process.
Design
Allows users to monitor and control the volumes in each chamber or the compost collection tray,
Users can find out if specific foods can be processed, which we found to be a frequent concern of users.
Community blog where can scroll through posts, toggle between types of posts, or create their own blog post - to facilitate feelings of togetherness.
A resource page in where the numbers on the graphic correspond to the components of KALEA’s process.
After clicking on any step, the pop-up shows the rest of the information and any important corresponding statistics.
Alerts are essential but can also be very annoying if not desired, so users have the ability to toggle which alerts to recieve.
I focused on reinforcing KALEA’s emerging brand identity, while exaggerating the aspects of the product that users are the most enthusiastic about. I believe that by creating an equally state-of-the-art digital platform and interaction with the composting machine itself, KALEA can set itself apart from other kitchen composting products on the market today.
Conclusions
As a solo project, this was primarily a UI design project, drawing from mostly existing user and brand research to establish a set of key features and effective visual language for the application.
My Role
To create a mobile application that enhances the overall brand and product experience for users by allowing clear location of information and control capabilities.
The Challenge
Key Skills & Lessons
Visual Design, Brand Development, Ease of Use, Educational, Customizable, Fully Controllable, Visually Engaging, Monitoring from Afar, Digital Controls