Render of the Braun stick vacuum-mop leaning on a grey backdrop

Braun Vacuum/Mop

Repairable vacuum and mop combination for Braun

Phase 1: reframing (group) · Phase 2: individual

A repairable cleaning solution designed as a mop-vacuum combination for hardwood and carpet cleaning, prioritising sustainability and user convenience.

Phase 1ReframingGroup

01Brief

“Invent and design an electric Braun cleaning product which supports you cleaning your home.”

In co-design sessions our group reframed challenges across the cleaning industry, identifying problems and trends such as e-waste, user accessibility and upcoming EU regulations. My focus was sustainability and repairability, which became the foundation for my individual project.

Team members mapping sticky notes on a whiteboard during a co-design session — Direction through research: co-design session

Phase 2Individual projectRepairability

02Research

Why repairability?

1 · A natural fit for BraunBraun's commitment to simplicity, durability and timeless design suits repairability. Easier repairs extend a product's life and reduce the need for replacement.
2 · E-waste is a growing crisisMuch of it ends up in countries like China, where informal recycling exposes workers, sometimes even children, to harmful substances.
3 · The law is comingEU Right to Repair legislation will require spare parts and repair information for consumers. Embracing it now lets Braun lead in sustainable design.

Children sorting through piles of electronic waste — Informal e-waste recycling

Product context map linking stakeholders around a product — Product context map

Tree diagram breaking down EU repair legislation — Deep dive into EU repair laws

03Interviews

The snap-fit problem.

“Snap fits are found everywhere along the sides of TVs. They are great if you want to keep a device looking aesthetic compared to something like screws, but I break them quite often.”

Tech enthusiast, TV repairer

Three personas built from the interviews: a high-school tinkerer, an event planner and a retired engineer — Personas created from the interviews

04Key challenges

Repairable, without compromise.

AestheticsMaking a product repairable without compromising aesthetics.
PriceWithout increasing price or significantly reducing revenue.
Ease of useEasy enough to repair to lower the “barrier to entry”.

Reference products for aesthetics, price and ease of repair

05Converging

How can you separate it?

Every way of joining parts, from glue and rivets to clips and threads, was clustered and filtered until three survivors remained: snap fits, threads and slide-and-lock.

Sticky-note clusters of joining methods converging to snap fits, threads and slide-and-lock

06Concept

Hiding in plain sight.

Snap fits make for visually appealing products, but opening them usually takes prying tools. Like an animal camouflaged in its surroundings, the access points should be there, just not noticeable.

Hands prying apart a 3D-printed snap-fit test part — Snap-fit tests

A frog camouflaged among green leaves — Analogy: hiding in plain sight

Pattern hiding

Braun products are full of hole patterns: speaker grilles, vents, dotted textures. Blend the access holes into one of those patterns and they disappear. Hover the grille to find them.

07The Braun Pin

One tool, two pins.

Snap fits can break. With a two-pin structure at a fixed width, the pin creates an extra, redundant system: both legs go through the pattern and release the snap fits from the inside.

Sticky notes listing requirements: reliability, aesthetics, ease of use, right-to-repair compliance — Requirements

Hand holding the 3D-printed two-pin tool prototype — Prototyping

Render of the Braun Pin: a metal two-legged tool

08Implementation

Where it belongs.

Hard-surface floors like veneer and tile are on the rise. Competitors answered with 2-in-1 mop/vacuum combos, so I set out to design one for Braun that tackles their pain points, guided by a moodboard of Braun's existing products.

Moodboard of Braun products annotated with dotted patterns, CMF and simple handles — Moodboard of Braun's existing products

09Competitor analysis

Mapping the pain points.

Existing 2-in-1 mop/vacuums fall short on carpet and rely on multiple attachments. User journey maps for the Dyson G1 and V15 showed where a multifunctional product could make cleaning across surfaces simpler.

User journey map for the Dyson V15 Detect Submarine — User journey: Dyson V15 Detect Submarine

User journey map for the Dyson G1 — User journey: Dyson G1

10Development

Three key features.

Cordless

Cord versus cordless was settled with weighted objectives: portability, convenience, power, battery life, cost and maintenance. Cordless won.

Easy attachments

The pin system returns: attachments click on and release with pins, without separate tools.

Carpet safe

Like some robot vacuums, the mop retracts when the head detects carpet: CarpetSense. One head for hard floors and carpet, no swapping.

CarpetSenseHard floor · mopping

Sketch of the vacuum head lifting the mop over carpet — Carpet-safe concept

Render of the CarpetSense head glowing green on a carpet edge — CarpetSense technology

11Visual development

Sketch in 3D, discover in AI.

Form was explored with 3D sketches in Gravity Sketch, then pushed with Vizcom for “drawing to discover”, before a final drawing back in Gravity Sketch.

Gravity Sketch line drawing of the handheld unit — 3D sketches in Gravity Sketch

Vizcom variations

Final line drawing of the vacuum in Gravity Sketch — Final drawing in Gravity Sketch

12Interface

One dial, every mode.

UI prototypes were tested in the hand, then refined on a co-design wall of 1:1-size interfaces against a UX moodboard, arriving at a single round display.