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Andrej Marfiak

Cafeco is a local cafe located in a suburban area. They are offering a variety of products and trying to target younger/middle-aged and busy people, who don‘t have time to prepare products on their own.

Based on the user research we find out that people mainly face the same problem - the amount of time spent waiting in line for a product to order and collect. So, we have decided to conduct UX research to come up with a solution of allowing users to order products in advance and skip the waiting line.

Conducting the research and creating empathy maps helped us understand users' needs. The main issue for users was lack of time and the fact, that they did not want to wait in line for products.

It was not all about lacking the time and need for a faster process. These people are really enjoying their coffees and the products that are offered by Cafeco are meeting their exact needs, but often frustration stopped a lot of people from enjoying them.

People nowadays are too busy to wait in line for products.

People visiting coffee houses do not have apps to order something from their favorite place.

Even though people visit the same coffee house, they are not getting any rewards.

“If I don’t start my day with a cup of nice coffee, I will be unbearable.”

Amy is a 40-year-old single mother living in Brno, Czechia. She has a 7-year-old daughter. She is working as an accountant in an international corporate. She has really stressful job and does not have much free time.

To enjoy a nice cup of coffee on a regular basis

Visit the coffee house as often as possible

Afraid of not getting high-quality coffee

Amy is a busy accountant who needs to get a cup of coffee as fast as possible because she does not have much free time.

Mapping Amy‘s user journey revealed how helpful would it be for users to use Cafeco app for mobile ordering.

We have created wireframes and conducted user testing to ensure we found the perfect solution for the users. During the user testing, critical things were discovered that helped to general user flow. These discoveries were then incorporated into the designs.

After finalizing wireframes we dived into making the app's user interface design. We chose neutral colors of violet, supported by brown colors on coffee thumbnails to represent the taste and smell of coffee.

Case study of Cafeco - a local cafe located in a suburban area. We came up with a solution of allowing users to order products in advance and skip the waiting line.

Case study: Order products from the cafe in advance

At the peak of the pandemic when it became clear that we are not going to get rid of it anytime soon, public institutions became burdened by the task of providing daily information about new rules, restrictions, and guidelines for how to cope with it.

As it usually goes for the public sector, the idea might be well appreciated but the execution often trails behind. Most of the time we have gotten used to it however, with the pandemic affecting our everyday lives it became more and more vexing.

When European Union 🇪🇺 came up with the idea to unify all the information across the member states we were really thrilled with it. With the #strongertogether hashtag they unveil their new portal. Have a look below 👇

With a strong message and a lot of useful information - this had great potential. But after seeing the final result we have decided to put it through our standard design process starting with UX research 🔎.

The tool informs about the current coronavirus situation in European countries in one place and keeps the data up-to-date. However, we discovered that users had trouble finding what they were looking for. We realized that the website includes too much information which, in most cases, is not clear.

In our UX research, we also saw people using the Travel ✈️ section the most. They had found this to be the number one reason why they would visit the platform. That is why we decided to focus solely on this use case and to adjust the information presented in this way.

Once we decided on the general use case we had to better understand our target audience, in order to identify what exactly they need from the product. We focused on their goals and observed behavioral patterns. Based on these we have defined user personas to cover their needs. 🙋

We have noticed that users were missing some functions in the current platform like watchdog 🐶 to be reminded about the actual status of the restrictions, the ability to search for routes based on different means of transport or find specific restrictions based on the type of traveler.

After collecting all of this information we have created preliminary wireframes to be tested and edited before applying the final design. Once we had this confirmed we were ready to publish our results.

Based on all the information we gathered in our UX research we have created a simple travel app where you could search for your destination in the EU and find out all the restrictions that apply along the way.✈️ 🌍

When you are visiting a particular country you want to know the route - not just the destination. In this way, the user journey follows the most common behavior and saves time spent searching for the information.

For a better understanding of your route at first glance, we decided to implement a simple color palette. We follow the 3 categories already created and used by re-opening the EU platform and applying them to our use case.

We also included most of the features to further complete the user journey. To make sure the user has always up-to-date information we introduced a watchdog 🐶 that you can set up as in-browser notifications 🔔 ​or via email. 📧

We have tested our concept with users and they loved it. ♥️

Everything is much clearer compared to the current platform. From finding your route to getting notified about restrictions, it is faster and much smoother.

If you want to know more about the process or want to give us feedback check out our case study on Behance.

After we have completed and shared our version we got really positive feedback within our community. Therefore we have decided to contact EU representatives and present them our ideas since as they have put it we are #strongertogether.

We have sent them an email with our solution explaining the reasoning and the whole process behind it. After some time after sending the email, we noticed that the reopen.europa.eu portal introduced a new functionality - Travel plan.

Here is a little sample of their implementation.👇

When we forget about UI :smirk: and focus solely on the functionality of the feature it accomplished the basic idea we had set out to do. So good job EU for listening to our feedback! 🎉

Once the Travel Plan has been published we even got a response email from the team behind Re-open Europe. They piqued our interest by explaining a few behind-the-scenes obstacles that they have to deal with while building this feature.

“Due to the high number of variables, individual situations, and fragmentation of rules, it is nearly impossible to offer concise sentences describing the restrictions in place”

When we hear that something can't be done, we see it as an opportunity for creativity, therefore we agreed to schedule a call with the EU team 🇪🇺 to get to the bottom of this and make the portal better for all of us.

We came up with our own concept on how to approach traveling during the Covid-19 pandemic. Check out our case study!

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