OVERVIEW
What is Design for Passion?
Design for Passion was a 10 week long program hosted by the University of Washington in which new as well as current students got to team up with industry sponsors to work on real world projects.
About Okapi Reusables
Okapi Reusables is a subscription based reusable cup borrowing system aiming towards minimizing takeout trash.
Users can borrow a cup from an Okapi serviced cafe while ordering and return the cup to one of their locations within 2 weeks of use.
They cater to coffee and boba shops and offer steel as well as glass cups.
Problem statement
Given the popularity of boba in the U District with almost 20+ boba shops, Okapi was looking to expand into the U-District.
How can Okapi refine its borrowing system to deliver a more user-friendly experience tailored to the preferences of U-District customers?
Okapi's Borrowing System
RESEARCH
Secondary Research
To get an idea of how circular borrowing systems work, we took a look at a few competitors. There are not a lot of similar systems present in the market yet.
Primary Research
We began by sending out user surveys to student forums and groups.
We then selected voluntary participants from the survey to conduct user interviews, where we explored their thoughts and concerns regarding Okapi’s system.
What aspects matter most while buying boba?
How does Okapi impact users' enjoyment?
What would make users want to try/adopt Okapi?
Due to time constraints we were not able to connect with cafes that have adopted Okapi. But, the founders were helpful enough to convey some of the cafe managers' concerns to us.
Research Insights
Users value seeing their drink, shaking the boba, and its aesthetics for an enjoyable experience.
Users do care about the sustainability of their boba cup
I probably would not download the app and pay a $10 fee for something I might not end up using
Users would like to try the service before committing and would prefer a different payment system
It would be cool to see how much I am helping by using these cups. It would help me try Okapi.
Users care about their impact and wish to see it. This would probably motivate users to try the system
I have travelled from one end of the city to the other just because my favorite boba shop had a discount going on.
Rewards act as great incentives. In fact, 91% of users have used cafe rewards
We have had one of the cafe owners report theft. We were wondering if something could be done about that.
There needs to be a new way to log and manage cup inventory. The current system is susceptible to theft
SOLUTION
Our Recommendations
App not needed to try Okapi, making entry accessible to all
Add identifiers on cups to prevent theft
Discard subscription fee through other ways of funding
Introduce Okapi exclusive rewards for engagement
Proposed User Flow
Mobile Application Design
To remove the barrier of downloading an app, I designed a web view that users could access by scanning a café QR code. There is a section to enter cup numbers, allowing cafes and Okapi to better track cups.
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Introduced tiered rewards to encourage cup borrowing and enhance user satisfaction
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Users can view statistics to 'feel' their impact
Introduced a rewards page for users to unlock exclusive Okapi perks and offers
Improved additional features of the app, for example improving the map feature for better searching.
Updated the borrowing feature to include cup inventory, matching that of the webapp.
We presented our final recommendations and designs to Okapi and our Design for Passion Cohort. We also discussed our research findings and results with Okapi so that they could best implement our ideas into their final goals.
REFLECTION
Client involvement makes a huge difference
Looking back, I feel like we did not schedule enough meetings with our client in the first half of the project. In the second half, we made sure to involve our client in every phase, which truly helped with timely feedback and better iterations.
Nailing remote work is tricky but rewarding
Our team had a 12+ hour time difference as I was in India and the rest of them in Seattle. However, as we learnt to work through it, it was rewarding to adapt to each others' working styles as it helped us produce a great output.
Prioritization in tight deadlines is critical
As we only had 10 weeks to work on the project, what really helped us was defining our timeline and tasks. Our mentor also played a great role in validating our plan.
Thank you for reading!
CHECK OUT MY WORK!
