Making A Great App Better
Overview
My team’s challenge was to design a new feature for the Starbucks app. Let me start at the beginning, I am not a coffee drinker, so it was refreshing to work on an app so many people love and rely on daily. The Starbucks app is a well-designed product with some of the best designers and developers constantly perfecting the app. We had a small margin of improvement to work with, but not only do I think we did a great job, Starbucks coincidently agreed with our work but rolling out the same new features we designed on the day of our presentation.
Problem Statement
Starbucks order ahead customers need a way to efficiently purchase their usual order and edit their order after submitting because of common errors that occur with store location and order mistakes.
Solution Statement
We address our users' pain points by creating an order usual button on the home screen for a more streamlined ordering process. To prevent errors, we add an edit order button to the confirmation screen that allows users to change the location or adjust the items in their order.
User Interview Breakdown
Our most insightful interview was with the two baristas that took time from their work to talk with us. We learned that orders often are sent to the wrong locations, and the company policy is to make the customers order at no extra cost. These mistakes have a large scale effect on the business bottom line; orders are made twice, meaning time and resources are wasted. We took this insight and redesigned the checkout process by making the default address more prominent and, more importantly, giving a grace period after the order is placed and when the order hits the baristas queue. Within this grace period of thirty seconds, the customer can edit their order and change the location or edit the items they purchased.
Topics
Thoughts & feelings about Starbucks and the app in general
Routine and ordering habits
Favorite features and pain points
Contextual Inquiry - Order your usual, order me a coffee (7 in-person)
10 Interviews, 11 Participants
8 App users
2 Baristas
User Research Overview
We wanted to conduct interviews to learn more about:
Who is using the app?
Who is not using the app?
Why do people choose to use the app or not?
How does the app affect the in-store experience?
Screener
“When was the last time you used the Starbucks mobile app to place an order?”
“When was the last time you placed an order at Starbucks in-store, not using the app?”
“Do you work/Have you worked at Starbucks?”
Affinity Mapping
Key Takeaways
Clear Pain Points
The order-ahead feature includes a default location, often different from where they intended (9 of 11 interviews)
Users wanted a way to speed up the order process, order their favorite item directly from the home screen (7 of 11)
Some expressed a desire for increased customization (4 of 11)
Competitive Comparison
With the time constraint on this project, we were happy with the competitive analysis as we learned what has become industry standard with mobile apps. We viewed dozens of user reviews and conducted a simple features analysis to compare what our interviewees stated and if any competitor has addressed these problems. We concluded that no competitor allowed customers to edit their order simplistically. We felt confident moving forward with our investigation into solving our users’ problems.
Persona
We were proud of our persona and her needs and wants when ordering from the Starbucks app. The Grab-and-Go customer wants a service to help her order her coffee without putting too much mental focus on the process. With most of our interviewees stating they order the same items every day, we knew the Grab-and-Go customer needed the most simplistic method to purchase their order.
User Flow
Our user flow shows that we made incremental changes throughout the app, but all within one user experience. Adding a button option for users to purchase their usual order with one click and go through the checkout process usually doesn’t confuse the customer that is already familiar with the app experience.
Future State Map
We made small changes to the overall apps site map. We felt this was the best solution being the app is widely loved and has been iterated to user needs multiple times. We did not want to fundamentally change the user experience to solve one problem and create another.
Sketches from Lo-Fi to Hi-Fi
We began to collaboratively draw sketches of how we all think the iterations should be designed. We tested this design and made better fidelity models from them.
Wireframes
I took multiple screenshots from the Starbucks app and uploaded them into Sketch. I then began to edit each screen into components so we could easily edit and rearrange the different components.
Design Testing
As a team, we decided to test multiple versions of our iterations to find the optimal design. We presented the three designs and had the users choose their favorite and second favorite. Then we asked if they would explain their reasoning and found insightful information to recognize when a small change in the interface made an easily accessible button for quick use.
Usability Testing
We tested our new user flows with half a dozen users and made iterations after each session. This helped us prove theories and improve on the execution of the deliverable changes.
Iterations
Prototype
Conclusion and Takeaways
We learned of an issue that many of our test users faced, and designed a simple solution that accounts for user error and doesn’t punish the user or company for the user’s mistakes. Our validation definitely came on our presentation day when one of our friends mentioned she has a similar feature on her Starbucks app that was implemented in a recent update. We updated our apps and revealed her account was partaking in a split test and ours were not. Starbucks losses money for every mistake a user makes on their app because of their gracious policies giving users their requested purchase if they indicate the mistake. Making such a simple design change will save them money, save the baristas time, and the customers’ optimal satisfaction, and that’s what UX design is all about.