What do users like about smart bottle? Insights for designers

Water plays a major role in our digestion, absorption, transportation and use of nutrients. Research has shown that inadequate water consumption can cause health risk of urinary stone disease, cancers, salivary gland functions, childhood and adolescent obesity and individuals’ overall health. Therefore, daily adequate fluid intake is an important nutrition guideline for people of all age. However, achieving such daily habit is a considerable challenge in many people and there is little data assessing the compliance for fluid intake. Although smart bottles have been introduced in the market, the existing bottles merely focus on a single aspect (fluid intake monitoring). Other aspects (medical adherence and storage compartment) have been neglected in the design. Given that medication often needs to be taken with water, it is important to incorporate fluid and medication monitoring system in the smart bottle. This study aims to explore the young bottles users’ needs and requirements of smart bottle through focus groups discussions as well as to propose a system design of smart bottle that integrates with the fluid intake monitoring system, medical adherence system and storage compartment. A sample of 14 young adults participated in the focus groups discussions. The results of focus groups discussions offer a fresh insight on three categories, namely, design, usage and technological features for smart bottle designers. A system design of a multi-functional smart bottle is also proposed. Research implications, limitations, and future research directions are also discussed.