BeanVoyage : Rediscover Local Coffee. Find, Sip, Repeat

UX Case Study | MICA UXD Capstone Project

In a world where our daily coffee ritual fuels both productivity and connection, why are we still wasting time searching for the perfect café? The hunt for a coffee shop that fits your needs shouldn’t be a hassle—yet for millions, it still is.

Project Overview

In a heavily coffee influenced culture in this day and age - where caffeine is a source of both productivity and connection - I found that we end up wasting a lot of time searching for the perfect cafe that fits our needs and there isn't a straightforward path to it yet. I'm pretty passionate about coffee myself, with several types of brewing mechanisms at home and a frequenter of cafes, so this project was a way to fuel that and help other coffee aficionados find their perfect café.

Impact

Expansive Coffee Culture

There's an ever-growing coffee culture in the U.S with it being valued at $85 billion economy.
Remarkably, 63% of Americans admit to drinking at least one cup of coffee a day, showcasing its popularity over even water. Yet when we look at coffee related apps, only the big café chains have them.

Growing Remote Work Culture

Post pandemic, there has been a shift in the work culture and many Americans are moving to a remote entirely workplace - leaving cafes a new workplace for many. Yet there isn't a straightforward and efficient way for workers to find places conducive to work easily.

Supporting Small Businesses

Lastly, supporting small businesses is crucial. They play a vital role in economic ecosystems, especially within local communities

TIMELINE & ROLE

Over 8 weeks, I conducted this case study as part of my masters capstone project in UX Design & Research at  MICA.
Week 1-2: Research (Project Plan & Pitch, User Research, User Interview Guides, Desk Research, Competitive Analysis)
Week 3-4: Ideate (Personas, User Journey Maps, User Interviews, 2nd user type)
Week 5-6: Design (Key Feature User flows, Initial Sketches, Low-Fidelity Wireframes)
Week 7-8: Testing (Usability Testing, Iteration, High-Fidelity, Prototyping, Next steps)

"$85 billion coffee economy, and yes, coffee is more popular in the U.S. than water with 63% percent of Americans admitting to drinking at least one cup a day."
"According to the Pew Research Center, around 22 million employed adults (aged 18 and over) in the U.S. work from home all the time"

User Research

I started off with doing a competitive analysis with the primary competitors being Google Maps, Yelp and Doordash as platforms primarily used by customers to discover coffee shops and order online.

Once I had the differentiation opportunities from my SWOT analysis, I started with user research and compiled an interview guide to conduct 2 sets of field studies for 2 user types (cafe frequenters and cafe owners/managers) over a course of two weeks.
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Based on my key findings - I focused on 4 features and developed my personas and user flows accordingly.

Design

I started off with doing a competitive analysis with the primary competitors being Google Maps, Yelp and Doordash as platforms primarily used by customers to discover coffee shops and order online.

Once I had the differentiation opportunities from my SWOT analysis, I started with user research and compiled an interview guide to conduct 2 sets of field studies for 2 user types (cafe frequenters and cafe owners/managers) over a course of two weeks.
‍
Based on my key findings - I focused on 4 features and developed my personas and user flows accordingly.
Once I had my initial sketches - I worked on developing my low fidelity wireframes according to the key user flows identified. With this prototype, I conducted usability tests over the course of a week to identify problem areas and improvements that can be made. I interviewed 5 participants and found that some user flows highlighted (right) needed to be fleshed out more.
Based on the changes, I moved into my high-fidelity wireframes and prototyping and conducted another usability test with 5 participants to re-evaluate my key user flows and journeys.

Final Design & Solution

Next Steps & Recommendations

If I had more time I would conduct additional research on business plans and competitive viability of solution compared to Doordash, Toast, UberEats.
I also want to design and test cafe owner view of the app with flows of onboarding, sales transactions & menu setup.
Recommendations:
AI Integration for personalized recommendations
Expand Testing Scope with small café owners to gain insights into their needs for business visibility and integration.
Iterate on Identified Pain Points and enhance feature usability

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