Overview
Context: An in-house coffee shop is the only one in an office building, dispatching hundreds of orders every day. It has proven to be a very popular option, with queues building up and long waits, especially in the mornings.
Challenge: Get the coffee faster and help social distancing by shortening queues.
Goals: Increase user satisfaction and reduce wait time.
KPIs: problem-value, ux success, ux progress, users satisfaction.
Tools
Time/Location
2 weeks (2021) /
Barcelona (Spain)
Quotes - Office
“I cannot spend 30 min queueing, even less if we have customers in a meeting”
“I could order in advance, but I prefer to go spontaneously”
“My strategy is to go earlier to get my coffee”
“I’m flexible to have a coffee break, but I don’t want to wait”
“It is a little uncomfortable to queue with social distancing”
“I’m not comfortable when the service is too stressed”
“I like when the staff remembers my name and preferences”
What are cafes doing during the pandemic?
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joe.coffee
App with different locations / Skip the line automatically / Free drinks reward
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Cafeza
Website order online / One location to take away or patio / Wine tastings and caterings
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Big biscuit
Website different locations and pick up times / Skip the line through Yelp / Tips in basket
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Quandoo
Booking software for restaurants / How many people, what time, contact data / Choose menus
Quotes - Coffee shop staff
“For the coffee machine it’ll be perfect to make it work full-time for 15 minutes and let it rest 5, we could keep a high-quality coffee and stay organized”
“In 15 minutes we could serve from 20 to 25 quality coffees, and in 5 minutes the machine can recover the right pressure”
“We don’t feel happy when everyone is stressed in a huge queue, we would love to provide a better service”
“Fewer options to offer will make the service faster and more effective”
How can we solve the problems we identified? Our solutions:
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1. Digital e-shop to order products in advance
Easy interface with products sorted by category and horizontal scroll, keeping favorites and last orders on top.
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2. Easy to make on-line payments
Once the user saves a payment method, the orders get paid and confirmed in the app directly.
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3. Queue management by time slots
A feature to show how busy the cafeteria is in real time will avoid extra-long queues. The option to order in advance using time slots with a maximum amount of orders will distribute them much better and could solve the problem.
Getting to our personas' shoes to design a solution
How would it work if someone orders in advance? And if someone wants to check how full is the coffee shop? How is it gonna look like for the staff?
How does eBiscuit work? Drag to see next steps!
1. Order your coffee
2. Choose a suitable pick up time slot
3. Pay and confirm the order online
4. Notification: "Should we start processing the order?"
5. Confirm or postpone 10 minutes
6. Your coffee is ready in 3 minutes!
Our design recommendations for a better experience
View LowFi Wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes
View MidFi Wireframes
Mid-fidelity wireframes
View MidFi Wireframes
Mid-fidelity wireframes
Our design recommendations condensed in a mid-fidelity prototype
Suggestions after delivering our design recommendations
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Usability testing
We detected an error on the horizontal scroll and we fixed it by letting the card half visible, so it was clear that the user can drag and see more products, but our recommendations were focused on running different rounds of usability tests while tracking customers' satisfaction.
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Organizational improvements
We discussed with the cafeteria's team if adding a new coffee machine would increase productivity. We also explored how to create a special space for pick-up, start offering cold brew or tracking sales to hire one more waiter during peak hours.
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Encourage orders in advance to reduce walk-ins
There was around 50 % of the interviewees preferred to show up spontaneously, so to control this uncertainty, we recommended encouraging customers to use the digital solution and order in advance. Some ideas could be creating credits (eBiscuits) to have free coffees or offer discounts to promote web orders.