A General Assembly UXDI Project
UX / Environmental Branding
The Brief
Intelligentsia Coffee finds it tricky to compete in the coffee industry, particularly in a city like Chicago where there are many great caffeination options for consumers. Intelligentsia needs a way to hold onto current customers and gain new ones.
Intelligentsia has the advantage of being bigger coffee company in the market so they have more funding for technological improvements. They think that a way to stick out is to redesign their mobile application. Right now their current native app is just for shopping and education, so they need a way to make the Intelligentsia coffee experience more relevant and beneficial for users.
Time Frame: 2 weeks
Team: Tatum Powel, Viviannehua Hua, Julia Halpern (me)
My role: Project Lead
Research
Research Methods
To answer these questions, we used the following methods.
- 1:1 Interviews
- Contextual Interviews
- Competitive Analysis
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User Testing
- Observation
RESEARCH GOALS
We set out to answer the following questions:
Why emotions and motivations to people have around coffee?
Why Intelligentsia coffee? Why an Intelligentsia cafe?
What is important to people as they choose where to buy their coffee?
Competitive Analysis
Insights from Research
1. Coffee is often an escape. It's a break, a treat, or a new location to work.
“I usually take coffee as a pause. It’s an opportunity to stop and collect thoughts while you’re going on to the next sentence or paragraph or thought.”
2. People are most connected with the immediate physical experience of coffee (Taste, the cafe), and less so to a more abstract understanding of coffee in the world (fair trade, etc).
“Periodically there will be a little sign explaining where they get their beans, and I’ll read it and think “that sounds nice” but I don’t really compare them nor know enough to be helpful.”
“Taste and the unique feel of the coffeeshop are most important to me”
3. Intelligentsia is designed for those who know coffee, and not well set up to support those who do not.
“I once wanted to order coffee, but when I got to the front of the line it was so complicated I just ordered tea, which wasn’t even what I wanted”
Design Principles
1. Empower & Support Users
2. Create an Escape through the Coffee Experience
3. Build on the Immediate Experience of Coffee
Personas and User Journeys
Ideation & Sketches
We hosted a design studio to see how we might use our design principles to help out in Jeff and Keana's daily life.
Insights:
- Only the most coffee savvy use the Intelligentsia mobile app
- The reason users come to the Intelligentsia website is to purchase coffee subscriptions
- The main entry point for Chicago coffee drinkers is the Intelligentsia cafes.
Design Principles and the Cafe Experience
1. EMPOWER & SUPPORT USERS:
Solutions:
a) Move the register to the front, facing users as they enter through the door, and bring pick-up to the back of the shop. Make this uniform across all Intelligentsia cafes. Place a wall menu behind the cash register for a visual cue as to where to order, and additionally have merchandise create line parameters.
b) Redesign the menu, and offer a paper version before users reach the counter.
Pain points:
a) Where to order: with no wall menu or visual cues as to where to queue, users made to feel immediately out of their element as they struggle to see where to order.
b) What to order: The layout of the menu leads to confusion in addition to making users feel that they do not know enough about coffee to order what they want
Original Menu
Redesigned Menu
2. CREATE AN ESCAPE THROUGH THE COFFEE EXPERIENCE
A coffeeshop often is already an escape, and patrons of Intelligentsia enjoy the ambiance. However, there is still room for improvement,
Solution
- Create a way to channel a momentary vacation
- Provide incentive to savor the coffee
Pain Point
- Users are often rushed in a coffeeshop, and don't stop to savor
Intelligentsia already offers wi-fi, but there is no sign in page. By adding a simple step (and some legal coverage), users will come across the Intelligentsia website in a natural way. Either by connecting to the internet as they wait in line, or taking a breather to enjoy their beverage as they start up their laptop, users will be redirected to a "coffee break" section of the webpage after they sign on for wi-fi.
Video choices were determined through forced ranking with users, and on average users said they would be interested in watching 1-3 videos before starting work.
3. BUILD ON THE IMMEDIATE EXPERIENCE OF COFFEE
The cafe redesign, the menu redesign, and the coffee break all address the very immediate aspects of the coffee experience. Once online, the homepage from our earlier iteration will be more useful to cafe patrons, and connect them to community events.
