How early learnings from a university beta shaped a product experience built for commercial scale.
Refilled is an Australian startup on a mission to eliminate 100 million single-use plastic bottles by 2030. Their bring-your-own-bottle vending-style machine dispenses still and sparkling water, with flavours and boosters to mix.
Students were refilling happily at the beta machine at Sydney University. The brief was an MVP companion app to test some key assumptions, plus a Refiller interface in line with the rebrand already underway.
Outcomes
1,000,000+ single-use plastic bottles kept out of landfill.
Early conversations showed where the product's value was, and shaped the redesign.
Up next: Scoping
Assumptions and a minimum valuable product:
An app for payments, rewards and impact tracking would strengthen the habit and drive stronger engagement and retention.
The end user (the Refiller) was responsible for Refill payments.
Payment incentives (free refills, discounted weekly plans) and personal impact tracking through a unique QR code would encourage regular refills.
With limited engineering resources, we designed to ship fast:
A single dashboard housed any pending actions and information — keeping screen count low.
One overlay template across the app for things like adding payment and scanning your QR, instead of bespoke screens.
A simple email and password login to keep the build small.
Up next: Pivot
Students had the app but rarely opened it. They could do all they needed at the machine.
Continued early sales conversations told us businesses wanted to fund refills for their people as part of CSR initiatives, not pass payment onto them.
This undercut a lot of the app's value. So rather than extending the experience through another screen, we simplified it where the action happened.
Up next: Redesign
Start to finish in under 20 seconds with every choice on one screen. A simple action earns the habit.
Good drinks keep them coming back — size, type, flavours, boosters, all in the user's hands.
Every refill, celebrated. On-machine leaderboard for some healthy sip-and-save competition.
All brand fit. Sleek and more professional so it felt at home in any space, with the personality that makes it fun in tact.
Up next: Impact
Refillers are installed across workplaces, universities and workplaces including Google, Meta, Atlassian, Uber, Netflix, Woolworths Group, and more.
To date, Refilled has kept 1,000,000+ single-use plastic bottles out of landfill, and expansion is underway in Singapore.
For the businesses funding it, drink costs run up to 50% lower than single-use alternatives.
"It was love at first sip and our team has been going steady with the machine ever since. The team enjoys being able to access plain and flavoured water at the touch of a screen."
Olivia, Metcash
"The real-time gamification of plastic and carbon savings has sparked a healthy competitive spirit across our team, while also making sustainability feel tangible and engaging."
Troy, Woolworths Group
