Mint

A toothbrush with a mobile application that assists you in maintaining a healthy oral hygiene as well as forming new brushing habits.

Duration

June 2020 - August 2020

Project Info

Team Project(Group of 2)

Design Lead

Tools Used

Figma

Solidworks

Rhinoceros

Grasshopper

Keyshot

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Project Objective

To determine the pain points of the user experience while brushing their teeth, I went through a thorough user research process that included interviewing a dentist and three target audiences. I learned that many people could not tell if they were brushing their teeth effectively because they could visualize the process, so I designed a toothbrush with my partner to teach users how to fix their bad habits.

What’s the Problem?

Why do people have a difficult time building healthy tooth brushing habits?

I care about my oral hygiene

Difficult to tell where is being brushed or not

Annoying to care every time I brush

It Is Hard To Stick With Right Brushing Method.

“I'm aware of the importance of brushing your teeth and I do it before going out and coming back home, but rarely brush when I'm at home. ... Once I do, I brush for about 2 minutes to reach every surface of my teeth. ... I used to use the electric toothbrush but not anymore because it occupies too much space and the cord is really annoying.” - Fernando

Electric Toothbrushes are Heavy and Expensive.

“I change my toothbrush every 3 months because I heard the brush wears out after 3 months and it needs to be replaced regularly. ... I brush in the morning, after lunch and before going to bed. ... I don't use an electric toothbrush since it's too heavy and expensive, instead I use dental floss.” - Mason

Problem Area & Experts’ Opinion

“The ideal method to brush one’s teeth is to scrub all the surface of one’s mouth thoroughly including tongue and gum.”

“The main reason people have poor oral hygiene is that they first, they don’t brush all the surface of the inside of the mouth and second, they spend too little or too much on brushing their teeth. The ideal duration is 3 minutes and if one exceeds that time, the toothbrush and the toothpaste might damage the surface.”

User Research

We traced two users to learn how they treat their oral hygiene and find a problems and solutions and here are the results.

How long do people brush their teeth?

There are two types of people brushing their teeth: the one who rushes and the one that brushes slowly. The rushers spend 45 seconds brushing their teeth. The slow people use an average of 10 minutes for it. They spend so much time brushing their teeth, not putting their effort into oral hygiene but spending time on other things like their phones or talking to someone, not giving much attention to brushing their teeth.

Do they actually touch all the surfaces of the inside of their mouth?

We recorded 5 people’s toothbrush trajectory to figure out if they brush all the oral surfaces, and what is the most and least touched part during brushing their teeth. One of the most neglected parts while they were doing it is to clean the tongue and we thought it is important to remind the users to brush the tongue also based on the interview from the dentist.

Persona

Daniel

33 Years Old

Start-up engineer

Fitness and wellness, technology, basket ball

Works long hours, usually spends time at home except for playing basketball, and considers how he positively impacts others.

Julia

25 Years Old

Freelance Writer

Career advancement, art and fashion

Early mornings and late nights describes her daily routine; She is fueled by coffee, Instagram is her life-line, looks for new adventures, and is always open to try new products.

Key Insights from User Study and Market Research

We need a simple, user-friendly application that visually informs users where the surface is being brushed or not.

We have to create a toothbrush with a lower production cost and a lighter weight than other toothbrushes in the current market. In addition, the toothbrush head will be detachable from the body so it can easily be replaced.

Users sometimes forget to brush their teeth after meals or when they are outside; thus, the application needs to let users know exactly when they should brush through notifications. The design of the toothbrush and its application should be both pleasing and intriguing to the users.

The Mission

By offering economical toothbrushes with a user-centered application, we hope that people can easily track their tooth brushing habits and adapt proper oral habits.

Toothbrush

- Ergonomic handle and brush head
- Lighter in weight by focusing only on bluetooth connectivity and utilzing lightweight materials
- Affordable price
- Simple composition of a 3-layered body
- Less space-occupying charger

Application

- A Simple and intuitive user experience design
- A novel engaging user interface that is unique and different from preexisting oral-related applications

Analysis of the Existing Products In the Market

While the products of Oral-B and Philips offer more features, they are on the more expensive side. On the other hand, Quip products are much lower in price but have less functionality. All three brands also have complimentary mobile apps with different features with brushing progress features in common.

S.W.O.T.

Strength

We can design an application more user-friendly in both design and function than those in the toothbrush market.

Opportunities

We decided to remove the clunky motors in the toothbrush to lower the price and make a slimmer design. We want to develop a more user-friendly and intuitive user experience of brushing teeth for the app.

Weaknesses

We do not have enough data in comparison to our competitors. We also cannot afford to study toothbrushes more thoroughly than the large companies already have experts in oral products.