VODA: A Geo-Specific Personal Water Filtration System That Works With Any Pitcher
In an 11-week project, Margarita Zulueta, Zekun Yang, and Anne Keating set out to redesign in-home water filtration consumer products, of which Brita is the current market leader. Their solution? VODA—a reusable pitcher-agnostic system that pairs with a geo-specific custom water filtration mixture. VODA focuses on local, open-source accessibility to clean water, and aims to reduce plastic usage in our personal drinking water habits.
Instead of providing a one-size-fits-all global solution, VODA's filter system is geo-specific—tailoring the filtration mixture to the user’s zipcode.
Project Overview
VODA's vision is to facilitate access to clean and safe drinking water by creating a water filter system that uses what you already have: your geographic location, your local water source, and your existing pitcher. The VODA system includes a refillable water funnel and filtration system with a geo-specific compostable filter media. Other competitors in the market have plastic filters that must be discarded, but VODA allows users to reuse the filter cartridge and recycle the compostable material. "Instead of encouraging consumers to buy more, we want people to do exercise less excessive consumption," Zekun explains of VODA's sustainable vision. Being pitcher-agnostic, VODA also encourages people to use the containers they already have. VODA's filter system is geo-specific instead of providing a one-size-fits-all global solution.
Let’s take a look at how the VODA System Works:
“The filter and funnel are designed to fit most water pitchers and can be purchased separately, so the customer can keep using the water pitcher they already have."
Key Features
The VODA system is effective because their model focuses on addressing local water needs for consumers through the geo-specific filtration. The geo-specificity is determined by providing a zipcode that determines your personalized water quality solution. The filter medium is compounded by location and based entirely on the water quality of that location.
Project Background
"We decided to focus on the water filtration market because, while many people drink filtered water, there is some distrust as to whether systems like Brita actually work," Margarita shares. "People want to trust the filter they use, but they are unsure if that filtration system really works for their area." The team interviewed filtered water drinkers, the reason why they drank filtered water was due to their specific location filtration contaminants. No matter how safe they were told their tap water was, many felt more comfortable drinking from a filtered system.
E-Commerce Platform
The VODA team proposes to run an online subscription refill mode that sends people filter medium refills. The funnel and filter cartridge fit any water pitcher, and can be removed when not use. Here’s a demo of how the VODA app works:
Branding and Package Design
The team chose "Voda"—a Slavic word for "water" with roots going back to the 2nd millennium B.C.—as the name for their company and brand. "It's not surprising for such an essential part of life that words for water have ancient roots," Anne said. The group liked the look of "Voda" stylistically as well. The "V" was inverted to form the "A" at the end of the word, echoing the shape of their product. The logo went through several iterations, with the team ultimately settling after choosing Source Code Medium as the typeface for the brand. The team added that “the typography was selected to be easy to read, clean and minimal—a reflection of the VODA filter system!”
