Scent technology gets sophisticated and connected
“Alexa, enable my personalized scent experience.” That’s right—step aside, candles and diffusers. AIRIA, Procter & Gamble’s newest and most connected home fragrance tool, is the air freshener of the future. Design Central teamed with P&G on this elegant fragrance-dispensing device, which puts to use patented SmartJet™ technology to fan micro-droplets of scent into the air for an optimal and customizable aroma. The user has complete control over its timing, scent intensity and ambient light via app, Amazon Alexa or manual controls. Our work on the design and manufacturability of AIRIA helped P&G deliver on a modern and highly functional home fragrance device.
Client
- Procter & Gamble
Industry
- Consumer
Capabilities
- Product Design
- Engineering
- Prototyping
Objective: Collaborate with P&G’s internal teams to design a sophisticated and connected home fragrance device.
Marrying new scent dispensing tech with an elegant design
Continuous scent requires heat or an automated spray. Procter & Gamble had a more future-facing idea. With market research in hand and the SmartJet™ dispensing technology in place—yes, the same SmartJet™ tech that powers your printer—P&G brought us on board to weigh in on AIRIA’s design and interface. We created a softer, tapered form that made room for the device’s controls and tech integration. We worked with P&G’s team to refine the look of the ambient light emitted by AIRIA, which ranged from soft white to other calming colors. And finally, we helped to define what kind of feedback the product would provide to the users as they interacted with the controls to customize their scent experience.
Collaborating to ensure product’s manufacturability
We worked closely with P&G’s design and development teams to assure all internal components were in place and the product was moldable and easily assembled. Our collective goal was to maintain a small footprint, so we worked together throughout the design process to ensure AIRIA was the ideal size. Our team also hustled to turn out models for P&G’s team to use internally to gather consumer feedback in time for the product to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. We worked through preliminary CAD as well, which gave the team at P&G what they needed to finalize and turn out a successful and pioneering home fragrance product.