Uma Smart Tea Thermos
Uma optimizes the tea brewing process for on-the-go users. It uses the portable thermos as the vessel to directly heat water, eliminating the need to head, pour, then brew. It also has an innovative lid mechanism that allow the user to control exactly how long their tea brews, preventing bitter tea.
Uma was created for and submitted to the 2026 IHA Homegoods Design Competition. Created in conjunction with Po-Yu Chen.
Team
Po-Yu Chen, Akhil Raote
Timeline
September 2025 - December 2025
Tools
Rhino, Blender, Sketching, Vizcom, Keyshot
001
Problem Framing
More and more Americans are choosing tea for their morning beverage. However, many of them, especially on-the-go students and early career professionals, struggle with a cumbersome, time intensive, and inelegant tea brewing process. We interviewed some to see what they were struggling with
Liliya Ustinova (19) 5+ cups / day
Annoyed at washing dishes/keeping a kettle clean
Scared of burning or oversteeping tea
Not sure where to find accurate information about tea brewing
Tea bags are annoying to handle, drip on counter
Sia Razdan (21) 1-2 cups / day
No great solution for on the go use
Worried about microplastics in teabags
Tea bags get tangled in spoons, have to be stirred a lot
Have to find a way to dispose tea bags
7
002
Pain Points
Through thorough user research, including in-depth task analysis and multiple more interviews, we ascertained five main pain points of the on-the-go tea brewing experience.
With our pain points nailed down, we then started to ideate potential solutions.
003
Ideation
Early iterations focused on casting a wide berth in terms of form—we explored using a coffee-machine type interface.
Form was an important part of this project—we wanted Uma to feel warm, comforting, purposeful, and elegant, in line with the intense competition in the drinkwares space.
We wanted Uma's curves to feel almost wave- or bird-like, drawing heavy inspiration from the natural world and utilizing complex surface modeling.
We also paid special attention to the mechanics of Uma's tea steeping basket, making sure there were plausible solutions for assembly, gaskets, materials, and watertightness.
004
Early Form
005
Further Downselecting
We creating many, many iterations of Uma's form, focusing on an elegant shape, refined surface transitions, and a special attention to how the form feels in the hand as well as how the light treats it. We 3D printed each iteration to get a real-life view of how Uma looked.
006
Surface Development
Once the shape of Uma was nailed down, we moved on to the surface modeling required for the twist cap affordance. We explored a wide variety of different options, creating a sophisticated Grasshopper script that allowed us to toggle the frequency of the undulations with ease. We finally settled on a tight flute that gradually disappears as it gets closer to the bottle, preserving Uma's distinct curves and elegance without sacrificing usability.
007
Uma
Uma optimizes the tea brewing process for on-the-go users. It uses the portable thermos as the vessel to directly heat water, eliminating the need to head, pour, then brew. It also has an innovative lid mechanism that allow the user to control exactly how long their tea brews, preventing bitter tea.
008
How it Works
Uma optimizes the tea brewing process for on-the-go users. It uses the portable thermos as the vessel to directly heat water, eliminating the need to head, pour, then brew. It also has an innovative lid mechanism that allow the user to control exactly how long their tea brews, preventing bitter tea.
Uma’s brewing system consists of four main components—the tea basket cap, outer lid, textured grip, tea basket, and inner lid. They disassemble easily for cleaning, and each have silicon seals to ensure watertightness,
Uma’s inner and outer basket system allows for a free flow of water when the tea is brewing, and a tight seal when the system is twisted to the off-steeping position.
009
Uma's UI
Umalog has a, intuitive, aesthetically pleasing UI, allowing the user to control the preloaded temperature presets by twisting and pushing down on the dial. Additionally, the user can set their own custom temperature at the end of the preloaded menu.
Thanks for reading!
