Case Study
Shortly after Halloween, I had the pleasure of teaming up with designers Gus, Christine & Juliana to interview coffee drinkers to find some quick insights. The purpose of the case study was to find out what coffee drinkers paint points are and design a prototype to solve it.
I recorded the conversations and shared them with my team. After that, we split up to form our case studies and find a pain point.
User Interview Questions
I helped to find people off the street at coffee shops so we could get some insights. We prepared a series of questions intended to remove any bias we may have to understand better the pain points coffee drinkers faced downtown. To help the interviewee relax we also included some casual banter to ease into our research.
What has your day been like this morning?
What was your visit here like last time you came?
What was your experience like buying a cup of coffee today?
What time of day do you prefer to have coffee?
How many cups do you drink a day?
What other items do you buy with your coffee?
If you don’t drink coffee, what do you prefer to drink?
Identifying Primary User
We spotted a man drinking coffee on a bench outside the Austin City Limits theater. He was visiting from Spain, attending a developer conference and wanted to smoke outside. He said in Spain the coffee is much stronger and it was hard to find coffee like that in the U.S. If he knew of independent coffee shops that served strong coffee he would go there instead of settling for Starbucks.
“I think coffee in the states has low caffeine compared to Spain’s.”
“...I drink coffee for lunch… but the place I went, they only served American coffee…”
“...so I took a scooter to find a shop with espressos, better flavor.”
Problem Statement
A frequent traveler wants a more natural way to find specific coffee’s while on the road because it’s hard to see “good coffee” while traveling.
Hypothesis
I believe that by creating a native app that allows the traveler to search, rank & share their custom coffee database, we will achieve helping the traveler find better coffee more efficiently while traveling.
We will know this to be true when coffee shops with stronger coffee’s experience more out-of-town customers.
Learning Curve
I wanted users to see the benefit of customizing their “Favorites” list. The better the record reflects the users taste, the better the search results. I started building a flowchart showing how the app would sign-in, explore maps, save favorites so I assumed they would sign-in. To test my assumption, I make a quick paper prototype.
Start
Keep it simple introduction page.
Try The Search Function
The other options are greyed out to encourage you to create a detailed profile.
Tap A Location On The Map
Find out what the location offers. Explore the map and review the selection. If they have a coffee you like add it to your favorites by tapping the happy face.
Choose Items
The app will direct you to create a profile to choose your favorite coffee.
Like Your Favorites
This page shows after a user taps a coffee shop on the map. Here they will see a list of beverages offered and the user can start selecting their favorites.
Profile page
In this page, you can customize your favs for future use. If you don’t see your favorites add them here.
Paper Prototype User Test
I took my paper prototype to the streets to get some valuable feedback by doing some user tests. I found three willing to try to navigate, and they pointed out some huge changes needed before I move on to Hi-Fidelity.
I wanted the map to be bigger so I can pinch and zoom in to navigate easier on my phone.
I’m not going to sign-in when it comes to any app I don’t know about.
I thought the logo looked like a snail! Is it a coffee bean with a shell?
I Would like to see all the features before they commit to creating a profile.
Where is the option to share with my friends?
Back To The Drawing Board
After the reality check, I started redrawing my flow-chart.
I simplified the favorites and removed the sign-in.
I reduced the home screen to only two buttons, search and Favorites.
I planI plan to make the map more prominent, so it’s easier to search the locations on a mobile.
My next prototype will allow the user to like a coffee and it will save it to the user's Favorites.
As the user continues to use it, the Favorites will create a profile the app can use in its next search. This action should show the user the benefit of saving to Favorites and create a profile.
I think this result would give the user more incentive to keep using the app and have a better experience overall. I also read an article in Medium about how to save battery life by choosing a black background. Battery life is something every traveler worries about and should be used in my traveler app.
What I learned
The biggest lesson I learned from this first case study is that you can never get to user testing soon enough. Never assume, It just leaves you open for a massive waste of time that you could have been used doing user testing. Only work a mid-fidelity prototype after you’ve gathered enough user testing to back up every button, image and page or risk losing a weeks worth or your life you’ll never get back!
