In the original iteration of the app, we came up with a scenario where earning points would come through an in-app code, which only the employees of the food court would know and would have to type in. After consideration, we realized this would likely cause more problems than it would solve. How would the employees get the code? Would it need to change on a weekly or monthly basis?

After talking with UNT Dining Services to learn more about how their systems work, we decided to make our new touchpoint the receipt you get from the cafeteria instead of the app itself. The employer simply adds a modifier on the register that will generate a code that prints on the receipt, and the user would then be able to use the app to scan that code which will give them the appropriate amount of points.

For the first round of testing, our goal was to gauge potential interest and to see if users could generally gauge the purpose of Reusable Rewards just from seeing the home screen.

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We set up a table by the Campus Chat food court [where the app would be used] and conducted A/B testing between the two screens we created. We asked passerby students if they would participate in exchange for a piece of candy. 11 participants were surveyed.

From our results, we synthesized elements from our mockup screens to create a finalized home screen for the prototype. We designed the mobile app to act as the validation source for the rewards system.

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Students would bring their reusable items to the checkout line and show them to the cashier as they pay for their purchase. The cashier would then add a modifier on the register pertaining to what item the customer brought, which would produce a unique code at the bottom of the receipt from the purchase. Users would then scan the code with the camera on their phone through the app, which would then verify the point value and load in the user’s account. These points could then be redeemed in the app for prizes such as a free fountain drink or a meal voucher.

To gauge the functionality of our system, we tested 10 students at our university to operate the application and give us feedback regarding how they felt about it. We sat down students in the UNT Union and asked asked them to complete three task flows and observed their paths, reactions, and pain points to determine what would need to be adjusted within the system.

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While most users were successful in using the app, there are room for improvements. We learned that the visibility of navigation could be improved, as well as the general hierarchy of information on the landing page.