Project Overview
Abuelas Café is a local coffee shop based in Atlanta GA. Abuelas Café strives to provide a thriving environment for coffee lovers to gather and pick up delicious coffee. Abuelas target customers are workers with hectic schedules and those who enjoy working from the café
The Problem
Users want a quiet space to drink coffee and to know they will have a place to sit when they get there. They also want to be able to order and pick up their order without waiting in line.
The Goal
Design an app for Abuelas Café that allows users to easily order for pick-up and reserve seating.
As the Lead UX Designer
I was responsible for conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
User research: summary
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users and their needs. Two primary groups were identified through research. One was users wanting to work in the café and the other was working adults that don’t have time to wait in lines. The user group confirmed that there were two very different types of people going to the coffee shop. Those with very little time to spend at the shop and those who would like to spend more time there but with fewer distractions, like trying to find a seat or a noisy environment.
User pain points
Working adults who commute to work have very little time to spend at a coffee shop
Patrons of the shop want to know they’re going to be able to find a seat when they arrive.
Those with food allergies need to know they will not run into issues with their orders.
Persona: Angela C.
Problem statement:
Angela is a Photographer who needs a quiet space to work and drink coffee because she is growing her business and works better in a relaxed setting
User journey map
Mapping Angela’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to reserve seating before they arrive at the café.
Paper wireframes
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that we were on the right track to address the users’ pain points before creating a digital wireframe. From the home screen, I prioritized a quick ordering and reserving process.
Digital wireframes
As I started going into the digital design phase I wanted to make sure my homepage focused on the feedback I received from the research.
Being able to pick up their order at a specific time was a big pain point for both personas and something I wanted to make sure to address
Low-Fidelity prototype
Using the complete set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow created was for ordering a drink and setting up a pickup time so that the prototype could be used in a usability study. View the Abuelas Café
Refining the designs
During the low-fidelity prototype study users were frustrated with the lack of intractability with the customization menu. In order to address this issue, I created an “Add to Order” prompt in my high-fidelity mockups.
After the second usability study, I realized users wanted the ability to select and deselect items from their customize section. To address this I replaced an add to order confirmation with a simple highlight feature that shows which additions are selected. I also added notes sections where users could specify their requests. The users would also be prompted to confirm the details after hitting Add to Order
Mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presents a cleaner user flow with much more customization options. I believe this addressed the major pain points uncovered from the usability studies.
Accessibility Considerations
Used Icons and pictures whenever possible to assist with those who have trouble reading.
Each aspect of the design has available text to describe what section of the app the user is in. This should allow those using a screen reader to navigate the app
Added a “notes” section to the ordering process so that those with accessibility concerns can voice them to those making their drinks.
What I learned
While designing the app for Abuelas café, I learned that the low-fidelity usability study was integral to the growth of the app. In the future, I will want to make sure the low-fidelity prototype allows users to complete all the prompts before starting the study. In doing so this will allow participants to focus more on the prompts provided, giving us more useful information.
Next steps
The next step for this project are to conduct more usability studies focusing on the reservation features. It would also be helpful to do more research into accessibility considerations.
Contact.
me@travisjsawyer.com
Thank you for taking the time to review my work on the Abuelas Café app! If you would like to see more of my work or get into contact with me, my contact info is below.