Case Study: Okapi Reusables

Okapi Reusables

Improving reusable cup borrowing experiences for boba customers in the U-District

Project at a Glance

Through the 2023 HCDE Design for Passion program, my team collaborated with Okapi Reusables to redesign reusable cup borrowing experiences for boba customers in Seattle’s U-District. Based in the Portland and San Francisco metro areas, Okapi strives to reduce plastic waste by managing a reusable cup borrowing network across various cafes and restaurants. With a specific focus on boba shops in the U-District, our team conducted user research and redesigned Okapi’s system to improve customer convenience experience.

Jump to final designs

My Role

UX Designer

Timeline

June - September 2023

Teammates

Anagha Yodatare, Srushti Sardeshmukh

Context &
Background

Okapi Reusables manages a circular cup borrowing system aimed at reducing plastic waste in takeout containers. Users can borrow reusable cups and later return them to any Okapi location.

Okapi currently services the Portland and San Francisco metro areas, focusing on primarily coffee shops. In addition to these two markets, Okapi is looking to expand into Seattle’s University(U)-District, particularly with its many boba shops.

Picture of Okapi glass cups with boba in them

DESIGN QUESTION

“How might we improve Okapi’s system to improve the user experience of cup borrowing for boba in the U-District?”

Research &
Findings

Our team began by conducting surveys through student forums and groups to understand the boba experience and identify key aspects that customers deemed the most important. We sought to answer the following questions:

What is the current boba experience like for customers?
Which aspects are the most important?
How does Okapi's system prevent/alter this?
What are users’ current thoughts on Okapi?
What would make users more likely to join Okapi?

Following survey results, we then selected voluntary participants to conduct user interviews where we explored customer thoughts and concerns regarding Okapi’s system.

Complicated Onboarding

Many reservations expressed about Okapi involved its signup process. New users were required to download the app and pay a membership fee prior to borrowing, which created initial barriers to adoption.

"It feels like a lot of burden is being put on the customer to download the app and pay the fee beforehand."

Usage Impact

We found in our interviews that they would be more incentivized to use Okapi if they knew what effect they were making. Such information might even increase investment.

"I would like to know the impact that I am making. I think that would definitely incentivize me to try it."

Deals & Rewards as Incentives

Not only did we find that exclusive discounts and rewards were widely used, we also found that they greatly enticed when and where people would buy boba. Across our research, 91.4% of participants reported using or having used cafe rewards programs.

In addition to these findings, we also met with the Okapi founders to understand any of their concerns. Through this, we found that Okapi’s system was susceptible to theft as users would scan return codes without returning cups.

Recommendations

To address the findings from our user research, we proposed a redesign of Okapi's borrowing system:

Discard the subscription fee to make for a more accessible entry
Enable cup borrowing through a web application for faster onboarding
Add statistics and rewards within the app to engage users
Implement cup identification to track inventory and prevent theft

Due to time constraints, we chose to design the web application and in-app engagement interfaces. As my role involved building the web application and rewards features, those designs will be highlighted below.

Sketching &
Ideating

Web Application

To allow for smoother onboarding, we wanted to allow users to borrow Okapi cups simply by using a web application. Like the current app feature, users would scan cafe QR codes to initiate an order. However, if not logged in, they would be prompted for their payment information to be held. This addition was necessary to ensure that Okapi could still charge for lost or unreturned cups. Lastly, we provided a section to enter cup information, which would allow cafes and Okapi to better track cup inventory.

Rewards & Discounts

Within Okapi's main app, we wanted to add opportunities for customers to receive rewards and discounts. With many Okapi locations already offering discounts, implementing them within the app not only allowed for greater discovery, but promoted engagement and increased Okapi usage.

Final Designs

Web Application

Rewards & Discounts

Outcomes & Reflection

Next Steps

Okapi eventually has plans to expand to Seattle cafes, including several boba locations within the U-District. As a smaller business, implementing larger design and system changes comes with a longer timeline, and thus raises logistics limitations. However, we hope that our findings and results can be utilized by Okapi's team to inspire future design updates to improve customer experience. While not all of our proposed redesigns may be implemented, we believe that the research we conducted, particularly surrounding boba customers (at the time of our project Okapi only served four boba locations), can be greatly beneficial to Okapi and their future success.

Reflection

Despite the Design for Passion program only lasting 10 weeks, working with Okapi allowed me to gain valuable experiences in client work and time management. Needing to account for business goals was extremely important, and it taught us to maintain consistent communication with all stakeholders. Communicating within our team was also difficult, as all three of us were remote and in different time zones. With there being over a 12-hour difference, it was crucial that we also used our team meeting times efficiently and planned work schedules effectively.