The work was structured around a clear objective: help Starship understand what made customers choose robot delivery over alternatives, and design an experience that made repeat use feel natural. That meant starting with research — understanding who was actually using the service, what they valued, where the experience fell short, and what it would take to make delivery at $1.99 feel like a no-brainer. Concept validation was a continuous thread through the engagement. Ideas were tested quickly, with real users in real deployment environments — university campuses, suburban neighbourhoods, urban centres. The feedback shaped product decisions directly. We weren't running research as a standalone phase; it was integrated into the design cycle. Human-robot interaction was one of the most distinctive challenges. The moment a customer meets their robot — outside on the pavement, in any weather, in any mood — is a product moment that has no direct equivalent. Getting that interaction right required thinking carefully about communication: how the robot signals its state, how the handoff works, and how the app prepares people for what to expect. Every touchpoint in the physical delivery experience was considered as part of the product.
Starship charges $1.99 per delivery in the US. At that price point, the experience has to be good enough that people don't think twice about using it again. That's a high bar for a product that rolls on wheels and has no driver to call.
Over the two years we worked with Starship, the marketplace grew substantially — in deployment locations, in order volume, and in the size of the product team we worked alongside. Lowering operating costs through better-designed operations and smoother customer experiences was a concrete contribution to the business case for autonomous delivery. By 2020, Starship had completed over 200,000 miles of deliveries. The delivery experience we helped design was part of what made that number achievable — not just the robotics. When the app is clear, the interaction is predictable, and the product feels reliable, customers come back. That's what drives lifetime value in a low-margin, high-frequency delivery business. The work was recognised with a Red Dot Award for Service Design in 2019 and a Gold at Vuoden Huiput in the Services category — validation that the design quality matched the ambition of the product.
Red Dot Award, Service Design, 2019. Gold, Vuoden Huiput, Services, 2019. Over 200,000 miles of deliveries completed by 2020.
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