Life Purified

Alen 2008

  • The frosted outer form creates a poetic gesture and expresses the filtering process that happens within
  • The interface area features distinctly shaped capacitive buttons that are discreet yet still a recognizable brand element
  • The outer form is only perforated for venting on the sides, to make the front of the purifier discreet
  • Cable management features on the underside tidy away excess cable
Solutions:
  • Design Research
  • Design Strategy
  • Design Language
  • Mechanical Design
  • Manufacturing support

01 Strengthening a brand promise

The Alen brand is establishing a reputation as the source for indoor air quality products. From air purifiers to air conditioners and dehumidifiers, their product offering is focused on providing “Life without compromise” by improving the quality of life for allergy, asthma, mold and pollen sufferers.

They called on M3’s design expertise to help them create their first ever product. Our challenge was to create a flagship product that would build on their brand equity, further their reputation as a progressive leader and to help them penetrate deeper into the air purifier market.

02 A designed strategy for success

In order to uncover opportunities to achieve Alen’s business goals, M3 investigated buyer’s motivations, the competitive landscape and also how customers viewed the Alen brand.

M3 developed a Design Strategy to address the opportunities uncovered by M3’s research. As the majority of purchasing decisions were made by women, the goal was to develop a family of products that have a more universal human appeal, is more harmonious to the home environment, with a more discreet and sophisticated aesthetic.

As 80% of all purifiers purchased are researched and bought on-line, M3 developed a new design language that would ensure that all future products developed would be recognizable as a family, even when viewed on-line at small scale.

03 The first new, ground-breaking product

Once this new Design Language was established, M3 applied it to create Alen’s first flag-ship product; the Paralda – the first air purifier ever to be lead-free, Energy Star qualified and ozone safe.

Paralda features a frosted outer form that gives the product a very poetic gesture – expressing the filtering process within, while making the necessary venting details more discreet.

The Design Language features many iconic design elements that make it recognizable – its distinctive silhouette, the frosted outer form and the distinctively shaped capacitive buttons.

M3 incorporated many innovative features into Paralda to achieve the goal of making it more user-friendly; such as an easy access door on the top of the purifier to change filters, a cable management coil to store unused power cable and a more intuitive user-interface.

M3 also provided the Mechanical Engineering support necessary to create this unique design, and liaised with Alen’s manufacturing partner in China to ensure that the final product was consistent with the quality of the Alen brand.

Paralda’s innovative appearance has captured an enormous amount of attention at tradeshows and in the media. It has established a new benchmark in the air purifier market.