Zip Micro, an adapted model of the classic HydroTap by Zip Water, has won top honours at Australia’s International Good Design Awards. Zip Micro was announced as the winner of the Good Design Award Gold Accolade in the Product Design Domestic Appliances category in recognition of outstanding design and innovation. The gold honour is testament to Zip’s commitment to innovation, health and wellbeing.
Zip Micro’s development followed the discovery that there was a need in the market for a streamlined version of the HydroTap that could fit in smaller spaces, given that small businesses accounted for almost 98 per cent of Australia’s 2 million businesses and employed 2.2 million Australians. The HydroTap needed to be adapted to fit in compact kitchens found in small business workplaces of up to 10 people. This called for streamlining the HydroTap’s under-bench smart command centre that enables boiling and chilled water to be dispensed at the touch of a button.
The innovative Zip Micro has helped the company expose a whole new market to all the benefits of the HydroTap, such as improved hydration and the elimination of single-use plastic bottles in the workplace.
Hydration is essential for health and wellbeing – it’s particularly important in the workplace as even mild dehydration can negatively impact mood, attention, memory and motor coordination. Eighty per cent of HydroTap customers report drinking noticeably more water than they did before they had access to the instant boiling and chilled water tap.
The Zip Micro features an under-bench smart command centre that’s 37 per cent narrower than the traditional HydroTap models. The adapted design doesn’t compromise on the performance of the original product, giving millions of Australians who work in smaller workplaces access to the HydroTap for the first time.
The annual Good Design Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious international awards for design and innovation with a proud history dating back to 1958. The 2020 edition of the awards was particularly competitive, with a record 835 project entries.
The Good Design Awards Jury on Zip Micro: “This is a clever new version of a design classic – the original Zip HydroTap. It’s a sophisticated space and energy saving design, which has helped the HydroTap enter a new market.”
Manufactured at Zip’s factory located in Condell Park in western Sydney, the Zip Micro was one of the first new products to have been produced on the new factory line, which was built with a $6 million investment in 2019 to help double their manufacturing capacity to meet growing international demand.
