Nick's Cafe UX Design Case Study

Nick’s Cafe App Design

Nicholas Ramlakhan

Project overview

The product:

Nick’s Cafe is a traditional cafe for all your coffee needs located in Plantation Florida. Nick’s Cafe strives to create great tasting coffee and a wide variety of options for everyone's needs. Nick’s Cafe targets customers who are either early bids that need their morning coffee or people who are too busy throughout the day to stop by and get coffee.

Project duration: November 2022 to February 2023

Project overview

The problem:

Busy workers and commuters lack the time necessary to get good tasting coffee.

The goal: Design an app for Nick’s Cafe that allows users to easily order coffee for pick-up or delivery.

Project overview

My role:

UX designer designing an app for Nick’s Cafe from conception to delivery.

Responsibilities: Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.

Understanding the user

● User research

● Personas

● Problem statements

● User journey maps

User research: summary

I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was working adults who didn’t have time to stop and get coffee on their way to work.

This user group confirmed initial assumptions about Nick’s Cafe customers, but research also revealed that time was not the only factor limiting users. Other user problems included difficulties such as disabilities that made it hard for them to go get coffee.

User research: pain points

1 2 3

Time

Working adults are too busy to make their own coffee in the morning.

Accessibility

Many cafes do not have option for delivery to account for people who may not be able to drive to the cafe.

Interface

Text-heavy menus in apps are often difficult to read and order from

Persona: Michael

Problem statement: Michael is a busy adult who needs his morning coffee but doesn’t have enough time in the morning to make it.

User journey map

Mapping Michael's journey revealed how important it is for users to have an app for Nick’s Cafe.

● Paper wireframes

Starting the design

● Digital wireframes

● Low-fidelity prototype

● Usability studies

Paper wireframes

I tried to make the ordering process as simple as possible and ensuring the process was as quick as possible for users. I also want to make sure that navigation was available from any screen that you were on for quick changes.

Digital wireframes

As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from the user research.

Digital wireframes

Wanted to make sure that our app was accessible for everyone regardless of work schedule, disability, etc.

Low-fidelity prototype

Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow I connected was ordering items from our cafe for pick-up.

Low-fidelity prototype

Usability study: findings

conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.

Round

Users want to order coffee quickly 1

Round

There were no options to edit the current order.

Users want a delivery option 2

There were no options for mobile pay services.

Users want to know how far the location is from them. 3

1 findings

2 findings

Refining the design

● Mockups

● High-fidelity prototype

● Accessibility

Mockups

Early iterations only gave the option to pay with a credit card. I added the option for services like Google Pay and Apple Pay to help with users who may not have a card at the moment.

Mockups

The second usability study showed how users were annoyed that they couldn’t modify their existing order.

I added options to edit and remove existing items in the order as well be able to change the quantity of each item.

Accessibility considerations

Provided the option for delivery for users who may be incapable to physically go to the cafe.

Used icons to help make navigation easier. The icons also help to make language barriers a non-issue.

Used actual pictures for the items to help users better understand what they are ordering.

Going forward

● Takeaways

● Next steps

Takeaways

Impact:

The app for Nick’s Cafe shows users that we are actively listening to their needs and feedback.

What I learned:

While designing the app I learned that it is okay to think of many different designs early on as it will iterate and change a lot from the early stages.

Next steps

Conduct another round of usability studies to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.

Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need.

Organize that feedback and start thinking of way to improve the design of the app.

Let’s connect!

Thank you for your time reviewing my work on the Nick’s Cafe app! If you’d like to see more or get in touch, my contact information is provided below. Email: Nicholas.Ramlakhan@Gmail.com