6 Evaluation Criteria
6 initial design evaluation criteria for my ideal teapot:
- Providing a ceremonial opportunity: Offering a social function by bringing people together, allowing to master the skill of cleaning/brewing.
- The object should be easy to clean.
- Over-extraction should be avoided.
- Multiple infusions could be easily achieved.
- Several types of tea could be infused in the teapot.
- To further improve the experience, the teapot should be aesthetically pleasing.
Target audience
- The target audience is not strictly defined by age, but rather requires a genuine interest in tea and its making. The perfect audience will be open-minded and ready to try new things.
- The teapot's real size allows the serving of two people. It is preferable, that the person in charge of the tea preparation chooses its guest to be a friend or a potential friend.
- The understanding of the teapot's mechanism is necessary in order to make use of it and therefore the one familiar with it needs to show and explain the usage of the teapot to the unfamiliar - allowing for the ceremony of tea-making.
How to achieve this
To achieve these criteria (options):
- In order to make it a ceremonial object the teapot can involve:
- multiple parts,
- a mechanism that requires some initial knowledge,
- an element that makes it special,
- a unique aesthetic design. - To make it easy to clean:
- it can have easy access to all the surfaces of the teapot by only containing big surfaces
- or can have smaller surfaces that can be accessed by taking the elements apart. - Over-extraction can be avoided by:
- designing a mechanism that enables the user to stop the contact of water and the tea leaves,
- incorporating a timer. - Multiple infusions can be achieved by:
- allowing the separation of tea leaves and tea water within the teapot
- creating parts that can be easily removed. - Several types of tea can be infused if:
- the teapot represents a universal design
- the material of the teapot is compatible with different degrees of high temperature (from 65 to 95 °C),
- heat does not escape the teapot due to evaporation, radiation or thermal capacity,
- over-extraction can be avoided (applies to all tea types > 3rd point) - An aesthetic appearance can be achieved (only) in accordance with the designer's taste/ client's taste. Therefore, my ideal teapot design will suit my personal tastes - to enhance the ceremony of tea and to create a certain bound with the object.
Estimation
To compare the final most successful designs - an estimation of their final performance