Bestea
Tailored to your mood, discover the perfect cup of tea for every moment. Bestea is an IoT device– a smart tea machine designed to improve the well-being and relaxation of college students.
Our team's diverse skills in design, programming, and research helped us create a unique product. My primary contributions were in research, design, and building the physical prototype.
Daniel Li
Kathy Wang
Rushal Butala
Yvonne Nguyen
Speed-dating
Diary Study
User Enactments
Wizard of Oz
Figjam
Qualtrics
Voyant Tools
How do you cope with stress?
We wanted to help college students manage stress. From diary studies, we found that negative moods are bound to be felt, but that there were opportunities to create positive feelings. This project introduces a way to help students relax and unwind after a stressful day.
Help students unwind and relax?
After thoroughly researching the space, we prototyped a personalized tea machine as an intervention to the problem.
Motivations
College Students are Stressed
College students are constantly under stress. In a Gallup poll that surveyed more than 2,400 college students in March 2023, 66% of reported experiencing stress and 51% reported feelings of worry "during a lot of the day.”
Reliance on Coffee
A poll of 1,248 college students found that 92% of college students drink coffee on a regular basis. Coffee increases short-term alertness and energy levels, but long-term effects include decreased perception of fatigue, nervousness, insomnia, and addiction.
Tea Beats Coffee...
Tea is a milder source of caffeine compared to coffee because its caffeine chemical releases more slowly into the bloodstream. It also has health benefits like improved heart health, lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Market Opportunity
87% of American Millennials reportedly consume tea, demonstrating a broad market interest within this demographic. Furthermore, they show heightened interest in healthy, functional ingredients and clean-label products.
Survey Results
📌 Students prefer using digital, rather than physical methods to manage their daily tasks
🛏️ Aside from academic tasks being the priority for students, they kept track of their chores/personal tasks, leisure activities, and social activities
😄 Most keep track of their tasks on an “as needed” basis, showing how students value flexibility and adaptability
🌈 To unwind, most respondents reported they enjoy watching tv shows, movies, or Youtube, engaging with family and friends, sleeping, and playing video games. These findings shed light on how student cope with stress
💡Tasks that give respondents the most stress include completing assignments or tasks on time, getting to class on time, and meal planning or finding what to eat
Diary Study
A diary study helped us understand how students feel over time, and how that related to their productivity. Having a contextual understanding of behaviors and experiences in the home and work environment was necessary.
Research Goals
1. How do college students manage their time and plan their days?
2. How do students unwind and destress?
3. What lessons can we learn from this to design a product that improves student productivity and well-being?
Key Findings
- Highlights of the day revolved around time with friends and family, and finishing planned work
- People’s moods throughout the day affected their ability to finish their planned tasks for the day - and vice versa
- If they weren’t able to complete a particular task in time, they woke up the next morning feeling anxious/sluggish with lower energy
- Positive emotions came up more frequently, with anxious being the most common negative emotion
From data points to user stories
After extensive data collection through surveys and diary studies, it was crucial for us to shift focus from raw data to real human experiences. Empathy maps and user journeys helped us reconnect with those we set out to help.
Speed Dating Matrix
3 opportunities x 4 intervention points = 12 ideas
We used a speed dating matrix to think of unique and targeted ideas for de-stressing at the intersection of each opportunity and intervention point. The eight ideas shown below are the more feasible ones that we later tested.
User Enactments
8 ideas x 7 participants = 56 enactments conducted
We created a circuit of user enactments using props and a verbal descriptions to quickly gather feedback. At the end of each test, we asked about their impression, products that stood out, and one they didn't see themselves using. This helped us narrow down our options.
Turning enactment findings into key features
Since we had so much feedback on several project ideas, we affinity mapped to identify user wants, as well as evaluate ethical concerns, market viability, etc.
Contextual Inquiry
The two ideas we had were a presentation assistant and a tea machine. We pursued the tea opportunity due to better alignment with user preferences, practicality, and feasibility. To learn more about tea harvesting, brewing, and consumers, we stopped by TeaHaus, a local tea shop.
Key Findings
- Novice tea drinkers prefer a simple tea (i.e., no complex blends) with a bold taste. The most salient taste is the tea base (green tea, black tea, white tea, etc.), followed by one to two aromatic ingredients. The subtle layers of undertone created by more than three ingredients are hardly noticeable by the average taste bud
- Water temperature, amount of tea leaves, and brewing time determine the taste and intensity of the tea
- Creating custom blends is a complex process that requires culinary expertise since more ingredients result in more tasting notes
- The most popular teas sold at TeaHaus are Earl Grey, English Breakfast, China Milky Jade, Roasted Almond, and Rooibos
Prototype shots and key features
Tea recommendation based on mood
"I'm not a tea drinker but if this gives me options based on my mood, I'd be interested"
Customizable Brewing Options
Research insight: students favor products that automate their routines, but still want some control over aspects of their lives that the products attempt to enhance
"If I'm really tired, I'd want to make it stronger"
Supply Indication
Research insight: students prefer low-maintenance products and need clear and accurate information about the system’s current status.
"Sometimes I forget to add water to my coffee machine so it dry runs and makes a terrible sound. I'm scared I'll break it."
Automatic Brewing
Research insight: students show preference for automation when their energy levels are low
"If this is part of my morning routine,
I'd want a cup of tea ready for me before I get to the machine"
Wizard of Oz Demo
Reflection
- Research methods: I gained experience diary studies, speed-dating matrix, user enactments, and Wizard of Oz.
- IoT product: we approached this from a ubiquitous computing perspective, considering how our product would fit into an environment, building it in physical space, then syncing it to a mobile device at a alter stage
- Focus & Impact: Initially, we aimed to solve multiple problems broadly, but I realized that trying to address too many opportunities at once can dilute impact. A more focused approach—such as narrowing our scope to a single setting (home, school, or work)— or single mood, would have led to deeper insights.
- Challenges: Our diary study data collection made it difficult to track participants over time, which limited longitudinal analysis. Additionally, while we selected goal-oriented moods (Relax, Energize, Decaf), it’s unclear if students naturally connect these moods to tea drinking.
- Growth: I applied these learnings in my next project at FanDuel, where I focused on developing an MVP, prioritizing immediate goals while defining less pressing issues as phase 2 initiatives.