Product Designing Smart Rental App and Lockers

An app and smart-rental locker system that allows newly independent University of Washington students living in dorms access to cultural cookware

Jan 2025 - Mar 2025
Role

Product Design, UX Design

Tools

Figma 

Team

Akhil Raote, Sarah Tindell, Juliette Kwak

Advised by

Bridget Weis

THE CONTEXT

Campus Cookware

Four people are standing in front of a table with laptops, showing a project called 'Campus Cookware.' They are smiling and pointing at the project display on the wall behind them.

My team’s challenge was to design a product or service that reveals the relationship between food and one’s heritage.

Researching Seattle

I designed posters to hook foodies to take our survey. Then, we posted them up in the Greater Seattle Area.

In the end, we gathered survey data from 62 individuals and conducted 5 focus interviews.

Multiple yellow flyers with black text reading 'u like food?' and a QR code in the center, arranged on a dark background.

  • “Up here, ingredients are just incredibly uncommon. And usually the places you have to go to are incredibly expensive. They end up having to import them from Nigeria.”

    21 yr old male, born and raised in Nigeria

  • “[In the] Wintertime, [the] whole village ladies gather and we make daengjang (soybean paste), a lot of kimchi... we work together, we enjoy together, we share the food together.”

    57 yr old female, born and raised in Korea

  • “My Mom makes [Sopa Aguada] a little bit different, like more to our liking. I wouldn’t say it’s less traditional because we make it differently [than how my grandparents make it].”

    20 year old female, 1st gen to Mexican immigrants

Our Results

We found that cultural food allowed people to access memories and culinary knowledge from the generations before them.

But, many respondents noted that they lacked access to cultural cookware and ingredients.

25.8%

of respondents feel like they don’t have access to the cookware or ingredients to cook food from their culture

Ideation

Sketches of tabs for a food and cooking app, including a trash can and current Google Maps, with illustrations of a cooking program, a food festival, store shelves, and people at a cultural food event.

After brainstorming, we decided to concentrate on 3 different ideas that focused on young adults in the UW area who lack to cook their cultural foods. We settled on a Cookware Rental system due to its practicality and ability to adapt to student life.

Cooking Workshops by Local Chefs

Free cooking workshops for students taught by local chefs, teaching them how to cook with provided supplies and ingredients

A person cooking in a kitchen, with three panels showing a stove with a frying pan, a microwave, and a box of pad thai.

Why not?

Difficult to plan and maintain consistent learning with busy student schedule

Competes with already existing cooking workshops at UW

App to locate Hard-to-find ingredients

An ingredient finding app that helps young adults locate hard-to-find ingredients, uplifting visibility for small culture-specific grocers

A drawing of a smartphone displaying a recipe app with a section called 'lime leaves' and a spice mix packet labeled 'spice mix'. Two notes are written: 'Notifications, your recipe go+75, loved this!'

Why not?

Impractical compared to the ease of a social media search and directions from Google Maps

Only targets UW students who are already interested in cooking

Cookware Rental Locker

A smart-rental locker system in student dorms that allows students to reserve cultural cookware that may be hard to store in dorms or too expensive to purchase.

A hand inserting a credit card into an ATM machine, with a note indicating items will be ready in 2 days.

Why we chose it:

Visibility in campus dorms sparks curiousity and encourages independent exploration on students’ own time

Specifically targets newly independent college students due to system promoting timeliness and cleanliness.

How might we…

make cultural cookware accessible on campus to newly independent college students at UW?

Three images of different smart rental store vending kiosks. The first is a modern, minimalistic white kiosk with a screen, the second is a bright orange kiosk with shelves of goods and a refrigerator section, and the third is a wood-finished kiosk with multiple compartments and a digital screen.

How we found the look

We were first drawn to the practicality and familiarity of the Amazon package rooms available for UW students living in dorms

Then one day, I noticed a locker in my apartment’s gym that had clear cases. It was called TULU, a smart-rental system that allows residents to reserve items such as vacuums, games, and emergency necessities.

A young woman with dark hair in a bun, wearing a beige teddy fleece jacket over a black shirt, is sitting at a wooden desk and writing on a sheet of paper with a pen. There are markers and a blank piece of paper on the desk, and a textured gray wall is behind her.
Hands of a person in a gray sweater sorting handwritten notes on white paper sheets on a white table.

More voices

We conducted a workshop for two UW students and instructed them to improvise possible scenarios, sort locker-feature cards, and draw and narrate their own lockers.

Participants prefer a locker with

01 - Clear windows and a friendly design

02 - Reservation time notifications

03 - A double-clean system done by both students and workers

04 - It’s location on the first floor of every dormitory hall

The Vision

A smart rental locker and app that…

01

Fosters learning opportunities through cultural exploration and reservation responsibility

02

Educates students about the history of the cookware, its culinary versatility, and its care instructions

03

Located on the first floor of dorm halls, has clear windows, and has a sleek, friendly frame

Variety of spices, herbs, and sauces on a wooden table, including a mortar and pestle, salt and pepper shakers, and a glass pitcher.
Close-up of a horse's head with a flowing, woodgrain pattern due to the way its hair and mane blend.
Person using a bamboo matcha whisk to scoop green matcha powder from a pink container, with a white ceramic bowl nearby on a gray surface.
Close-up of a green leaf showing veins and texture.
An elderly person and a child's hand working together to shape or prepare doughballs on a floured surface, with several doughballs laid out on the table.
Three women in a kitchen laughing and chatting while preparing food and drinks.

The mood

We wanted the app and physical locker to complement each other. Inspired by natural textures and colors and the comfort of sharing food, the final product was designed to feel light and friendly.

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The Final Project

In 10 weeks, we created a prototyped app, a 3D model, and a film.

Three smartphones displaying the Campus Cookware app interface, with screens showing a welcome page, search bar, regional categories, product listings, and a homepage menu, on a dark background.

Explore cuisines around the world

Pickup at a locker on campus near you

Three smartphones displaying an app for reserving a traditional Korean earthenware pot called Ttukbaegi, with options for time and dishes, against a black background.

Simply reserve any type of cookware for your next meal or event

Three smartphones displaying a package pickup app, a calendar, and a home screen with various apps, with focus on the package pickup app showing a QR code and access code for locker pickup.

Easy rentals, endless flavors

Simply enter in your code and unlock a world of authentic cookware

A stainless steel kitchen cabinet with a large, shiny pot inside and other kitchen items on the shelves.

The Final Film

Shot and directed by me.

If I had more time?

I would research what specific cookware would be the most used by UW students.

I would test how intuitive the physical locker system would be for students.

I would launch our app and rental system to be integrated into the UW dorms.

Take-aways

Find potential in the things you find most interesting by asking yourself “what if?”

Peer feedback can tell you much more than what you’re able to tell yourself

Group work is done best when we contribute what we’re passionate about