Nalgene Bottle Research

Project Overview

Goal: 

  • Create a new water bottle with an innovative shape*, to acquire a new customer segment for Nalgene

  • Understand reusable water bottle use, habits, and preferences

I was the lead researcher, and worked closely with our industrial designer Emily Pearce.

*Details have been changed

We conducted multiple rounds of research and design, including competitive testing, a survey, design iterations, and prototype testing

Competitive Testing

Research questions: 

  • What were reusable water bottle users' habits and preferences?

  • What design features make up the ideal water bottle?

Methodology: 

  • 10 in-person, moderated, one/one sessions

  • Participants were shown 7 bottles by different brands, with different key features (e.g. material, mouth section, shape, etc.)

  • They gave feedback on each feature, chose their favorite, and discussed current bottle usage

Key findings: 

  • The most important features to users were:

    • Drinking experience

    • Accessibility

    • Easy to clean

    • Portability

    • Look and design

Survey

Goals: 

  • Gather quantitative data on people's water bottle use, habits, and preferences

  • Determine priorities among bottle features, to inform design decisions

Methodology:

  • I designed a survey, with questions similar to the qualitative testing:

    • Participants were asked about bottle ownership, use, ideal features, and color preferences

    • They were asked to rank bottle features by importance

  • The survey was created and recruited with SurveyMonkey

    • 161 participants responded; all owned a reusable water bottle

Persona Creation

I collaborated with my team to create personas, based on the research results and use cases such as:

  • "I need to open my bottle one-handed when I'm on the subway"

  • "I like having cold water on long hikes"

Each persona was focused around one key bottle feature.

Design Workshop

I planned and facilitated a design workshop with our business stakeholders and designers

Goals/agenda:

  • Teach design thinking to the stakeholders, and allow the business to participate in our process

  • Review research findings and personas

  • Brainstorm design concepts

  • Align on business objectives, next steps, and timeline

Concept Testing- Round 1 (Qualitative)

Our industrial designer created 4 concepts with different focuses, based on our research findings and personas. 

Concepts A and B: Portability and cleanability

Concepts C and D: Accessibility (easier to grab)

Test goals:

  • Gather feedback on the 4 prototypes

  • Continue to understand users' preferences, likes, and dislikes around bottle features

Methodology:

  • 9 in-person, one on one sessions

  • Participants gave feedback on the prototypes and specific features

Key findings and recommendations:

  • There was no clear "winner" among the prototypes, but the feedback for each bottle was consistent

    • For example, most users who chose bottle A liked that it was simple, durable, and easy to clean

Concept Testing- Round 2 (Quantitative)

Based on feedback from qualitative testing, our designer created two refined, final concepts.

Again, each was focused on a specific feature:

  • Concept A: Accessibility

  • Concept B: Portability

Goal:

  • Gather quantitative, high volume data to determine which design option to pursue

Methodology:

  • We ran two testing sessions:

    • We scheduled 47 pre-recruited sessions at a testing facility

    • We ran intercept-style testing at a local outdoors store, and recruited 44 participants

  • In each 15 minute session, participants were shown our 2 final concepts as working prototypes, along with 2 competitor bottles

  • They chose their favorite bottle, and again gave feedback on features

Key findings and recommendations:

  • We measured which bottle was the most popular overall, and which of the 2 prototypes was most popular

  • We also compared results across location (facility vs. store), to ensure there was no bias based on different types of users

  • Again, there was no clear "winner" by sheer numbers, but reasoning was consistent for each bottle

  • After discussing the results with our stakeholders, we chose one of the designs, with some small modifications

Final Designs

Unfortunately, as of 2025 the business has not decided to produce the bottle.

However, we created a final design which is ready for production, and were able to get a patent for one of the features! We're hopeful they will consider releasing it in the future.

Previous

My Account Redesign