Slurping Pearls — when the ‘same’ users aren’t the same

Recently we had a little conversation at the Reassemble office about drinking bubble tea, and it got me thinking for a bit about how we decide if our users are ‘like’ or ‘unlike’ each other.

What should be the basis for making a design decision that caters to users? Is it who they are, or does that miss out certain things?

A little background first.

Down the street from our office is a bubble tea shop — nothing fancy or unique, just a branch of a massive local chain — and we get drinks from there all the time. And once, two of my colleagues ordered the exact same drink.

Da Hong Pao, with milk, regular, 30% sugar, with black pearls.

Back in the office, though, we are having a discussion about how to drink bubble tea. And here’s where it gets interesting.

Colleague 1: You’re drinking your tea so quickly!

Colleague 2: I love this flavour! (It’s the first time she’s had this.)

Me: But shouldn’t you be drinking more of the pearls while you can?

Colleague 1: Yeah, I drink from the bottom so I get plenty of pearls.

Me: Otherwise you’ll finish your tea, and then there’s a huge pile of pearls still there, and it’s a waste…

Colleague 2: What do you mean, waste? That’s the whole point! I want to eat all the pearls in one shot at the end!

What’s happening here? Simple — the same people turn out not to be the same after all.

As customers, my colleagues were identical. Even in terms of who they are — young, Asian, female, professional and working in a startup — they are pretty similar. But as drinkers? Absolutely not. They’re after different things, and the ‘best’ way for them to drink bubble tea turns out to be completely opposed.

Now, if your company’s product is as simple as bubble tea, this may not mean too much to you. We might not need to redesign cups just to cater to the way people drink; in any case, we most likely couldn’t. It would simply be too expensive to produce eight different kinds of cups, and to ask people how they drink their tea.

(Though, imagine that! “Are you a pearls-last drinker, ma’am?” That’d be just a little creepy.)

But the increased potential of digital products — their ability to do more, provide more information, give more options — means it is both possible, and more expected, for them to cater to the way users use.

Just because you are offering something useful and helpful (bubble tea) doesn’t mean the way you offer it will make sense to your users. It’s one thing to create based on how people buy; it is just as important to figure out how people behave.

At Reassemble, we treat both usefulness and usability as key goals when designing products. Take a look at some examples of how we do that!