Design Language

Vaillant

A fluent design language
with a user-centric approach

As one of the leading manufacturers of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, the Vaillant Group holds a number of top brands throughout Europe and China. Which has resulted in an extremely complex portfolio covering a range of product categories. To improve its management, Noto was brought in to develop a more systematic, global product design concept.

Client | Vaillant
Sector | Home Application
Year | 2019

Recognizing & understanding user needs

The first step in the research process was to identify and define market needs in terms of product usability and appearance. Understanding the needs and goals of users and installers, as well as Vaillant’s internal interests, was an extremely important aspect of this process.

From research to system requirements

Our qualitative research process involved a series of workshops, interviews and shadowing of about 70 internal and external stakeholders in four countries, seeing how they think, live, work and how HVAC products fit into their lives. 

Our research resulted in 1700 key findings which could be translated into 23 concrete design requirements. These form the backbone of the new Vaillant product design system.

Speaking in fluent design language

The fulfilment of these 23 extremely diverse design requirements was the defining vision behind our systematic design solutions. 

We focused on two of the brands within the Vaillant and Saunier Duval group for which we developed clear, strong signature elements which express the values behind each brand. This led to a remarkably strong network of detailed design solutions which form a cohesive product portfolio. 

Acceptance and reducing complexity

Our comprehensive design solution was validated by an independent institute. The solution obtained a higher degree of acceptance amongst users and installers than all of the competitors. We managed to unify the product portfolios of both Vaillant and Saunier Duval. This was achieved whilst reducing the complexity and production costs of the products.

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