We have a meeting each month where we take a break from our work and practice brainstorming about ways to improve everyday items. We thought an appropriate name for this meeting was "Build a better mousetrap," but as it invariably happens to long titles, we shortened it to "Mousetrap."

This Month's Challenging Topic: Build a Better Coffee Maker

Tribester Responses

Coffee makers today are so advanced with automatic timers and single serve option I think about the only thing you could do to enhance them is add in cream, sugar and/or flavor preferences so the could be constantly tweaked to a drinker's taste.
-- Tony Passero

Well anything that can brew coffee as good as Dunkin Donuts would be a must have feature! Barring that integrated grinder and grounds measuring for single or multiple cups, self cleaning and a permanent filter would be the mother of all coffee makers in my book.
-- Joe Kaput

I like the process of making coffee in the morning. It's a ritual of sorts, albeit usually a bleary-eyed one. As such, I have no problem with the making of the coffee - filling the water, inserting the filter, measuring the beans, etc. The part I find least interesting is the cleaning of the machine! If there were one improvement I'd like to see, it would be a self-cleaning coffee maker.
-- Andy Owens