Dice Breakers

Overview

Problem

There is a lack of meaningful connections at Stanford's Coupa Cafe

I observed that Coupa Cafe functions as a "shared solitude" space, where people are together but mainly focused on their own tasks. The environment feels designed to encourage focus and familiarity, which is what makes a lot of people feel comfortable at Coupa. However, there isn't a low-friction activity to bring people together.

How might we create low-pressure opportunities within Coupa Cafe that leverage its casual and central location to encourage thoughtful conversations among Stanford students?

User research

I conducted 6 30-minute-long empathy interviews, forming 4 general personas

By interviewing a range of people from Coupa frequents to Coupa infrequents, I learned about the various perspectives people had surrounding Coupa.

Ideation

I brainstormed 30+ solutions and sorted them by feasibility and uniqueness

I developed 3 ideas further, weighing the pros and cons of each

Pin Your Place fell: too impersonal and anonymous, only fostering connection while people are writing on the cards. Coupa Maps fell: too high friction, with walks too time-consuming and hard to initiate. After considering the feasibility and viability, we decided on our final product: dice breakers — large, colorful dice featuring thought-provoking conversation prompts on each face. Students roll them at their table and use the prompt to spark meaningful conversations beyond small talk. Everyone's in it together; the dice chose the prompt, not you.

Product

The user flow should feel natural

I lowered the barrier to entry by prioritizing a frictionless start, allowing users to engage with the product and their conversation partner immediately: a person sits down at Coupa, sees "Dice Breakers," reads the sign, rolls with a friend or acquaintance, asks and answers, and the people around join in if available.

We chose to use The New York Times' 36 Questions to Fall in Love

Why? It is well-researched and proven to be effective. We altered many of the questions and ended up choosing 12 to prototype onto the dice. Each die contains a different set of questions, so there is no repetition.

We 3D modeled the dice to be more rounded and ergonomic

By originating the shape of the dice from a sphere, we made the dice able to comfortably fit in the palm of one's hand. The final product is a pair of 3D-printed die with a different conversation question on all 6 sides.

Testing

A 5-hour casual drop-in testing session was run with 28 total participants

At first, we encouraged pairs to test out the product. Then, we laid out the dice and observed from a distance as people were curious and began to play. We also incentivized participation by providing a raffle opportunity for a Coupa Cafe gift card.

Feedback

I implemented both verbal 1-on-1 casual interviews and a feedback form, gaining 28 responses

Through a short Google Form accessed by a QR code (easy and optional), we gained both quantitative and qualitative anonymous data, removing any pressure from providing feedback.

What needs to be improved?

"I think that [this question] would be too awkward to ask if it were landed on during the first roll." — Participant #26

In future iterations, we will implement two kinds of die at every table. One will be more surface-level questions to begin with and the other would be deeper conversation questions. This will remove any awkwardness coming from questions that may be too deep.

Next steps

To communicate with Stanford's Coupa Cafe staff and implement this experience permanently at the cafe. It requires the staff to low-effort put out and return the die when opening up or cleaning up.