New garden product line for Husqvarna's growing target group – small garden owners.

Client – Husqvarna

2023       

In house / Sweden

Brand Strategy
Industrial Design
User Interaction
User Experience    

Context

Historically, Husqvarna has primarily focused on serving professionals and large garden owners with battery-powered garden tools and solutions. However, we identified a gap in a specific market segment—the suburban consumer. These individuals reside in houses with smaller gardens, limited storage space, and limited access to our traditional dealers and points of sale. Aspire™ aims to address the unique needs of this demographic by offering compact, efficient, and user-friendly solutions tailored to suburban living.

Defining strategic vision and design attributes based on in-depth user research.

My role

As the industrial design lead for this program, I collaborated closely with the brand design manager to define the overarching essence of our new product range. Through extensive user research and the crafting of a comprehensive brand design strategy, we established solid 'design pillars' that encapsulate our vision. These pillars serve as the guiding principles for our approach, merging user experience, industrial design, and engineering seamlessly.
Today, I'm in charge of driving the future of this range from an industrial design and user driven perspective. My role ensures that all forthcoming products align seamlessly with the strategic vision and design attributes we've established.

Credits

Rajinder Mehra,  Brand Design Manager
Jin Sun, Qingzhuang Song ,  Project Managers
Johan Hjelm, Rose-Marie Olsson, Product Managers
Patrik Almqvist, Tor Sigurdson, Markus Hedberg, Alfred Fayos, Robert Karlsson, Modelers
Huazhong Zhao & team , R&D

Smaller gardens & limited storage space.

As suburban small garden owners, they take immense pride in maintaining their green space to showcase their gardening prowess and stand out in the neighborhood. While not all are seasoned professionals and may even be complete beginners, they may not feel entirely comfortable with tools and their usage.
Nevertheless, they desire products that are easy to understand and instill confidence in their abilities. Efficiency and ease of use are also crucial for them; they seek high-performance, top-quality garden machinery that requires minimal maintenance and is easy to carry and store in their limited space. They view their gardens as extensions of their living rooms, where aesthetics play a pivotal role.
In their search for products, they prioritize those that effortlessly handle the job while also enhancing the visual appeal of their outdoor space.

Tailored Experience –
Redefining garden tools for suburban living.

Although the Aspire™ products represent a completely new range targeted at a new audience, they are built upon the proven quality and technology of our professional line. One of our prime focus in developing this new series has been on ease of use. Color markings have been strategically incorporated to indicate points of interaction, including buttons and various settings. Our aim is to offer clients meticulously crafted design solutions that are tailored to their needs.
In addition, we have endeavored to differentiate ourselves from competitors and other traditional brands. We've heard feedback such as, 'I don't want to resemble a park worker in my small garden.' Within a wide range of services and offering, our objective is to build a distinct and lasting brand identity that exudes clarity, elegance, and pride.
Last but not least with its multi-brand battery system, the products offer great power and flexibility. The incorporation of smart features and intelligent designs in every Aspire™ product will make garden work easier and more enjoyable.

One battery for all – Powerful benefits.

The tools are powered by a battery within  – POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE – one of the largest 18V battery systems with compatibility across 10+ leading worldwide brands for home & garden. This means, users can use the same battery and charger regardless of manufacturer and brand within the alliance. They no longer have to commit to one single brand and deal with different, incompatible batteries and chargers that take up unnecessary space and were manufactured with resources that could have been used for other things.

Small, compact – tidy, always.

'There are lot more tools I’d like to buy but I just don’t have the space' – Research feedback
The Husqvarna Aspire™ is designed for limited storage space. Compact, lightweight, extendable and foldable, each tool is optimized for storage in tight spaces. The focus has been on optimizing product size to maximize storage efficiency. For further space optimization, we've developed a custom storage solution featuring wall-mounted hooks, accessories, and a storage rail to neatly organize tools of all sort.

Designed inhouse at Husqvarna, Sweden.

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