Jibu H2O
Led UX research and design improvements for smart water dispensing machines, focusing on usability, operational efficiency, and real-world deployment challenges across urban environments, events, and public institutions.
Project details
Overview
Jibu H2O develops smart water dispensing machines deployed across multiple contexts, including public spaces, offices, universities, and temporary events.
The project focused on improving the usability and reliability of the system across uncontrolled real-world environments, where user behavior, infrastructure conditions, and operational constraints vary significantly.
Beyond the user interaction itself, the challenge involved designing for a complex service ecosystem, including end users, maintenance teams, and institutional clients.
Objectives
The goal of this project was to identify usability and operational challenges in real deployments and translate them into design improvements.
The research focused on:
understanding how users interact with the machine in different contexts
identifying friction points in bottle placement and interaction flow
analyzing operational challenges in installation, maintenance, and logistics
improving system reliability under environmental constraints (e.g. sun exposure, vandalism)
designing solutions that reduce dependency on manual intervention
The project followed a context-driven UX research approach, grounded in real-world observation, iterative problem-solving, and system-level thinking.
Methods & Frameworks:
Contextual inquiry through direct observation of users interacting with machines in real environments (events, public spaces, offices)
Behavioral analysis to identify interaction patterns, misuse cases, and points of confusion
Informal stakeholder interviews with internal teams and operators to understand operational constraints
Affinity mapping to cluster recurring issues and identify patterns across deployments
Root cause analysis (5 Whys) to trace technical and usability problems to their underlying causes
SWOT analysis to evaluate system strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and operational risks
Iterative prototyping & testing of physical and system-level improvements
Documentation design (installation & maintenance manuals) as a tool to improve usability and scalability
Results
The research revealed that usability challenges were not driven by interface complexity, but by contextual, environmental, and behavioral factors present in real-world deployments. Users often struggled to correctly position their bottles despite visual cues, as the absence of feedback in a screenless interaction created uncertainty and led to trial-and-error behavior. This highlighted the need to embed guidance directly into the physical interaction rather than relying on instructions.
User behavior also frequently diverged from the intended use, especially in public environments. Machines were used for unintended purposes such as filling large containers or washing objects, revealing a gap between designed use and actual behavior. This emphasized the importance of designing for real user needs rather than ideal scenarios.
Environmental conditions significantly impacted system performance, particularly in outdoor contexts where sunlight affected sensor reliability. These issues showed that usability in physical systems is closely tied to environmental variables and directly influences user trust.
From an operational perspective, many issues resulted in inefficiencies, as minor problems often required on-site intervention due to limited diagnostic clarity. This reinforced the idea that operational workflows are a critical part of the overall user experience.
Overall, the findings highlighted the need to design systems that account for variability, misuse, and failure, rather than focusing solely on ideal interactions.
