An isometric render of a red van with its side and rear doors open beside a black outdoor kitchen under a solar-panel canopy, with a sink, cooktop, water barrel and fire pit.

Recreational Living

A set of connected products and services for adventurous lifestyles.

Goal:

Conceptualize GE Appliance opportunities in recreational living products & connected services.

Market Research
Alignment Workshop
Services Storyboards
Physical Product Design
Feedback & Refinement
Experience Wireframes

A woman pulls a stainless steel Dometic slide-out kitchen with a two-burner stove, cutting board and stowed pans from the back of an SUV parked in autumn woods.

A camper van's sliding door open on a compact kitchen block with a two-burner stove, a pull-out pantry drawer and a fold-down table set with coffee cups.

A woman in a red jacket cooks at a black slide-out kitchen drawer in the side of a white pickup truck, with pans, a stovetop and utensils laid out.

A white pop-up camper trailer on a lawn with its tent walls raised over a seating area and a two-burner stove and sink pulled out from its side.

A wide online whiteboard of workshop exercises: group frames of photos and sticky notes, a pinned world map, red and black persona cards, and clusters of yellow and blue notes on colored grids.

Core team from business & design collaboratively defined and aligned around categories, key user problems, and areas of exploration.

User Problems:

1. Indoor/Outdoor Flexibility
2. Energy Management
3. Temperature Control
4. Connectivity
5. Preparation & Storage

Category Plan

Indoor Compact
Outdoor Attached
Outdoor Mobile
Services (across categories)

A four-panel hand-drawn storyboard of stick figures: ‘Order from camp’ by phone beside a blue van, ‘Provider receives order + location’, ‘Go fish…’, and ‘Unlock + store delivery’ into an orange box on the van.

Supply Drop
Problem: How can I replenish supplies remotely?

Step

Trail Drop

Replenishments can be ordered and picked up at Amazon lockers that fall along your trip route. Each order and drop is synced with GE Appliances Mobile Living Trip Planner, helping to relieve vehicle storage space and packing anxiety.

Stretch (pictured)

RV Box

Supplies are ordered and delivered via geolocation into the secure RV Box on your vehicle. Amazon or P&G DTC services can unlock the RV Box via NFC and leave deliveries even if you're away from camp. Instacart brings local groceries that stay fresh in the box's temperature and humidity controlled section.

Leap

Beer Drone

On an overnight hike away from the camper, you run out of your favorite beverage while relaxing by the fire. No problem. Press a button on your GE Appliances Recreational Living app to summon a supply drop from the roof of your camper to your phone's geolocation. The drone takes off as-the-crow-flies and in minutes you are refreshed and satisfied.

A three-panel hand-drawn storyboard of a stick-figure family: ‘Camping meal plan?’ puzzling the parents, recipes, ingredients, activities and schedule arrowing into a phone, then ‘Great cooking, outdoors’ at a van's side kitchen.

Trip Calculator
Problem: How do I plan a complicated multi-day trip?

Step (pictured)

Meals on Wheels

Figuring out your camping meal plan is a little different than at home. Inside or outside? Quick snack in the day pack with fresh caught fish for dinner? GE Appliances Mobile Living Trip Planner calculates needed supplies based on camper's activities, then walks you through prep and cooking in the great outdoors.

Stretch

Route about Now

Yellowstone first, Grand Teton second... or vice versa? Just plug in your destinations and length of time at each spot and the GE Appliances Recreational Living Trip Planner will summarize route options, weather conditions, and featured attractions. Vanlife for ever? Trip Planner can sync your meal plans with Amazon lockers along your route or schedule deliveries to the RV Box.

A three-panel hand-drawn storyboard: ‘No appliance, no rental’ with a frowning agent and a crossed-out van, ‘Appliances communicate status’ from a moving van to a cloud, and ‘Maintenance tuned to usage’ on a dashboard.

Maintenance Monitor
Problem: What if my appliance fails while traveling?

Step

Local Yokel

The GE Appliances Mobile Living app is your lifeline to qualified service people and parts suppliers. Whether you need an on-campsite visit or will be traveling through town tomorrow, GE can help minimize the time you spend without your mobile living appliances. Qualified people and certified parts.

Stretch

Is Your Refrigerator Running?

Ahh, the peace and quiet of the great... knocking ice maker? It's still making ice, but according to my GE Appliances Mobile Living app, the compressor is drawing higher than normal current and showing signs of failure. With the press of a button, I can find a service location or schedule an on-campsite visit. In the meantime, who wants a daiquiri?

Leap (pictured)

Appliance As A Service

For a RV rental company, when an appliance stops working, the RV stops working. They need a trusted brand with product SLAs to keep their vehicles on the road and enjoyed by customers. GE's connected appliances send usage data to analyze performance and service history then recommend proactive measures.

A two-panel hand-drawn storyboard: ‘Battery running low…’ as a family cooks beside a van wired to its roof solar panel, then ‘…but replenished on schedule’ as the van drives under the sun.

Resource Management
Problem: I don’t want to worry about running out of juice.

Step

Got Juice?

Alongside meals and routing information, the GE Appliances Mobile Living app can calculate approximately how much water you'll need to bring and how long you can go before finding shore power. The system keeps you prepared by relating your expected mobile living appliance usage to meal plans, weather, and trip info.

Stretch (pictured)

Sunny Forecast

GE's Mobile Living products work together so you can be outdoors longer. Projected resource levels are continuously calculated with appliance, solar, and alternator use. If that projection is faster than your plan, the system will adjust service priorities. Don't worry about depleting your battery cooking dinner, GE Mobile Living knows it will fill up during tomorrow's sunny drive down the coast.

Leap

Net Zero

GE Mobile Living takes a total systems approach to the great outdoors. With full awareness of electrical loads balanced with solar arrays and plentiful battery capacity, your home away from home can stay away indefinitely. With water collection and 99% pure filtration, you can refill from any source nature provides.

An isometric diagram labeled Appliance, Platform and Destination: six black kitchen appliance concepts, modular sink, cooktop and storage pieces on a rail, and two outdoor kitchen structures, joined by dotted blue arrows.

This Recreational Living project was done in partnership with Open Design, who ran the relationship with GE Appliances and are responsible for all of the industrial design work shown (and even more that is not shown). Thanks Ryan & Sally.