Tea set

This is Haoting’s final project to complete his Bachelor’s Degree. It is an independent design project that started in January, 2019 and finished on May, 2019.

Context

Problem

Solution

With the improvement of people's living standard, more and more people start to enjoy life. To most Chinese people, tea drinking is a culture that symbolizes one of the many ways to enjoy life. Tea plays a critical role in China’s long history. It was originated in China and it was first used as a oblation. As time goes on, tea has gradually became an commodity and drinking tea is now an inseparable part of Chinese culture.

Tea drinking is gradually becoming a culture for younger generations to socialize. The young people are generally active and energetic, they like to travel and explore new things. However, tea sets are mostly large in size, making it difficult for tea lovers to take them with and enjoy tea wherever they go. Thus, the problem occurs.

In this case, a portable tea set is designed to solve the problem. The portable tea set features all the necessary equipment for tea drinking in one foldable set. Creating an easy and convinent way for tea lovers to enjoy tea with their friends and family anywhere they go.

Research

After an abundant market research and studies of existing tea seats, the core equipments in a tea set are, the tea pot, tea cup, tea caddy, and tea table. In addition, a tea filter can effectively filter the tea leaves and imporve the user experience of tea drinking. Therefore, these are the requisite items that a tea set must contains.

Sketches

Version one

This tea set is designed to hold a total of four cups, a tea caddy, a tea pot (with tea strainer function), and a tea table. The most distinct feature of this tea set is the portable feature, which cleverly uses the space to accomodate the above tea equipments in a space similar to the size of a 42 oz Coke Cola bottle. Users can easily take it anywhere and enjoy tea whenever and wherever they want.

Prototype

In the first testing version of the design, the support was not enough to hold the tea table stably which may lead to the collapse of the tea table, drop of the tea cups and spilling of the tea in the process of using this product. In order to solve this problem, the supporting platform was redesigned partially to be able to hold heavier weight.

Final version sketches