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Cup O' Joe

An interactive kiosk that enhances coffee ordering experiences for new and existing consumers. Designed for UCSD Design Lab.

My Role

My Contribution

UI/UX Designer

User Research
Persona
Storyboard
Kiosk Design
Wireframes
Prototypes
Usability Testing

Tools Used

Team

Duration

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

Google Suite

4 UI/UX Designers

8 weeks

Challenge

For many individuals, coffee has become a necessity, a staple in their day-to-day lives. Subsequently, the ordering process is an essential experience that customers have to deal with every time they go to their favorite coffee shop.

Their experience could be affected by variables such as a language barrier (complex coffee jargon), or the lack of order-takers and baristas to complete their drinks quickly. Thus, our kiosk was designed to create a new ordering system that allows customers to order quickly and with ease. 

Goal

Design a self-ordering kiosk that

  • Reduces wait time in line.

  • Reduces ordering time.

  • Increases customer retention.

  • Attracts new consumers.

Outcome

We surveyed 40 UCSD students, 38 out of 40 endorsed the UI and the kiosk prototype and said they will order from our kiosk if they see one at the coffee shop.

Design Process

Iteration
User Research

User interview

Online research

Analyze
Ideate
Implement

Persona

5 Whys

Storyboard

Rapid prototype

Wireframe

Digital prototype

Kiosk prototype

Evaluate

Usability test

Uncover problems

Discover user behaviors

Iteration

USER RESEARCH 

User Interview

As part of our research to help better understand the problems that users face within coffee shops, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 4 potential stakeholders. 

1.
Understand users' motives of going for a coffee shop.
2.
Understand user preference.
Grab and go?
Stay for a while?

 
3.
Understand the pos/neg coffee ordering process users had experienced.
 
4.
Gain insights from users' experience with interactive kiosks.
 

Online Research

Use of self-ordering kiosk drives revenue

Recent study on McDonald’s kiosks found that customers actually bought more items when using the kiosks since it enabled users to dwell on the menu longer.

Users endorse drink customization 

When using the self-ordering kiosk, customers are more readily utilizing the customization options available in items.

“Language barrier” between coffee shops and novice consumers

Many coffee shop menus consist of dozens of options with names written in coffee shop colloquialisms. Customers may be overwhelmed by the number and meaning of the customization options available to them. As a result, customers may settle on the most basic or popular drink despite it not being their best option.

ANALYZE

Persona

Based on our user interview and online research, we generated the persona and gathered the key findings of user needs.

User insights

1.
Customers need intuitive and quick ordering with easy customization.
2.
Customers want to order at their own pace and leisure.
3.
Customers want to be more confident in their buying process and decisions.

OPPORTUNITY

How might we better serve both novice and regular coffee shop customers to make coffee ordering more efficient and approachable? 

IDEATE

Solution

Our proposed solution became two-fold; a POP interactive kiosk with digital screen and coffee dispenser, and an app that provides the customers an alternative check-out experience.

1.
Enhance and expedite the ordering process by remembering user's preferences and allow users to access their frequent orders for faster checkout.
2.
Enable drink customization and ingredient visualization.
3.
Design a built-in drink dispenser for monthly drink special try out.
4.
Design a reward point system.

CUSTOMIZATION

Enable drink customization and ingredient visualization

Users can customize their drinks based on size, temperature, type of milk, flavor, and number of the espresso shot, which is helpful for customers when they need to order multiple drinks with customization. Hence, novice coffee consumers could visualize how the ingredients differ from various types of coffee. 

PURCHASE HISTORY

Expedite checkout and optimize user experience

Customers can access their order history to expedite their checkout experience. They no longer need to repeatedly navigate the screens to find or customize their drinks to checkout.

MONTHLY SAMPLES

Attract new consumers by free seasonal drink try-out

By trying out free samples, users are more confident in purchasing full-size beverages. This eliminates customer purchase hesitation and removes their uncertainty about the taste of new beverages. It also helps coffee shops differentiate themselves from competitors and attracts new customers by offering unique products.

REWARD SYSTEM

Sign up for loyalty program to earn rewards

Users can sign up or log in to their loyalty program to discover new deals and earn points for every purchase. This helps to drive revenue, retain existing customers as well as attract new customers.

Storyboard

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 6.25.58 PM.png

IMPLEMENT

Rapid Prototype

1. Splash screen
Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 6.50.46 PM.png
2. Menu screen
menu screen.png
4. Menu screen (updated cart)
5. Review cart screen
menu w_ updated cart.png
review cart.png
3. Drink customization screen
Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 6.51.05 PM.png

Kiosk Sketches

Initial Sketches
initial sketches.png
Refined Sketches
refined sketch.png

Kiosk Prototype

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 4.16.16 PM.png

A front view of the Cup O’ Joe Kiosk, made to resemble a bag of coffee beans with a label on the front.

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 4.16.24 PM.png

A view of the front and side of the kiosk, including decorative coffee bean details on the sides.

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 4.16.31 PM.png

The top of the kiosk contains the major functionality of the kiosk, including the digital screen, payments methods, and receipt/change distribution. In the center, customers can try a sample of the featured drink (this area lights up when the user selects the option on the screen).

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 4.16.37 PM.png

The bottom of the kiosk contains decorative elements of the kiosk, including a label and coffee bean motifs. It also contains the kiosk logo.

The design of our kiosk was based after the form of a ground coffee bag, with the ordering screen located on the top with the sample dispenser directly below it, flanked by the payment options our kiosk accepts.

 

The coffee kiosk has been designed to allow for intuitive and quick ordering with fun graphics and easy customization. The design of the kiosk is useful for both experienced and inexperienced coffee drinkers as it allows both types of users to order at their own pace and leisure, bridging the gap in knowledge and experience. Additionally, our kiosk has the added functionality of providing small samples for users, in order to better inform their buying process and decisions.

Digital Prototype

Style Guide

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 10.15.25 PM.png
Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 10.15.32 PM.png

Moodboard

moodboard cup o joe

Our moodboard was inspired by warm-colored tones and coffee shop settings. We wanted our designs to be simple but also playful. 

EVALUATE

Usability Testing

Goals

The primary aim of this usability testing endeavor is to elevate task completion rates, lower error rates, and reduce task completion times. Additionally, we seek to gather actionable feedback from users to drive iterative improvements in the product's design and functionality.

User Tasks

1. Try a sample of the drink of the month.

2. Locate and identify the ingredients for London Fog.

3. Order a latte with the following criteria: medium, ice, oat milk, hazelnut flavor, with1 extra shot of espresso.

4. Count your drink toward your reward points.

5. Checkout using debit card payment method.

Areas of Improvement

  • We refined the flow of reward system to be more intuitive to users.

  • We clarified customization option "espresso shot" to "extra shot."

  • We increased color contrast. 

  • We ideated a feature for faster checkout by adding login/sign up function in the splash screen that allows users to access their purchase history and pay.

User Feedback

  • Users value reward systems at coffee shops, which encourage loyalty to particular shops.

  • The ordering system is extremely helpful if they need to customize multiple drinks.

  • 38 out of 40 users said they will use the coffee kiosk to order if they see one in the coffee shop.

Iteration

Frame 1-7.png
  • Enhanced color contrast entirely to improve readability.

  • Added sign-up for users to add their phone numbers.

  • Decreased the padding of buttons to have a better visual appeal. 

Frame 2-5.png
  • Changed "COLD" to "ICED" to follow the convention.

  • Changed "Espresso Shots" to "Extra Shots" to avoid confusion.

Review cart iteration.png
  • Separate rewards and payment to avoid confusion.

  • Change the background image to match the brand logo.

Final Thoughts & Takeaways

Digital Screens:

1. set the price of different drink sizes. Since our user-tasks only required the users to order a medium size latte, we didn’t realize that we did not specify the price for different sizes.

2. implement on the scrolling bar and the search bar.

Kiosk:

1. add a pin-pad under the “card insert” slot, so that the users can be more securely entering their debit card pin numbers.

2. include the use of additional lights to signal users where to insert their physical payment method, corresponding to the one they chose on the kiosk screen.

3. work on additional improvements on our sampling dispenser and quality of life. Add sanitation wipes and trash cans located inside or beside the kiosk for users to dispose of sample coffee cup.

Avoid Potential Pitfall:

Since we only focus on college campus setting, the demographic of customers are limited to college students. We had once reframed the problem to how to make the coffee ordering and waiting experience more enjoyable in contrast to how to make it more expedited. However, we have done interview sessions with students, and most of them could only get their coffee or snack during class break for about 5 to 10 minutes. More than half of the interviewees prefer grab and go rather than staying. If I have more time, I wish to conduct user research and usability testing on coffee consumers with different demographics to further improve and iterate the prototype. 

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