Overview

Caffeinder is a mobile app that helps its users find the most optimal cafe or coffee shop setting based on their preferences.

I started this as an independent project inspired by shared experiences from my friends and I as undergraduate students navigating through a variety of local campus cafes to figure out which setting best caters to our needs.

Understanding the Problem

As a university student residing in a college town, I found that there was a surplus of cafes and coffee shops around campus. However, even with a variety of places to choose from, most cafes were not work friendly for students due to a lack of power outlets.

Since each cafe has its own distinct character, environment, and amenities, it would be helpful to distinguish each cafe by letting consumers facing specific needs to determine which cafes can serve these needs before they are physically present.

User Research

To gather more information on this issue, I conducted a series of user interviews to determine if cafe and coffee shop frequenters actually faced similar issues due to lack of amenities or accessibility. From these interviews, I discovered some pain points that users faced across the board.

• For users who wanted to study or work in a cafe, they found that once they arrived, outlets and seating were either sparse or unavailable. 

• Users who are willing to travel further are sometimes unaware if there is parking available nearby and don't want to risk wasting their time. 

Competitive Analysis

Google Maps Search & Yelp App

Some commonalities that these two platforms share are:

• Organized search functions 

• Use of images to break up the text so the screen is not too cluttered,  keeping viewers engaged

• Maintaining text hierarchy

Some limitations or pain points to take into consideration are:

• Lack of filters that include availability of outlets and parking availability

• Filters and amenities do not target the actions that typical cafe goers engage in (e.g. studying/working, having formal coffee chats, or just relaxing in the space)

• Focuses more on the quality of food rather than the physical space itself

Drawing Key Insights

Users think that the physical environment and amenities that the cafe offers is more important than the actual quality of the coffee or drinks. 

Users want to an environment tailored to them based on their purpose of going there.

Developing User Personas

Since students are part of the main target audience, it is important to recognize and analyze their needs and pain points to develop actionable insights towards their goals, thus the creation of this student persona.

Ideation

Designed the bare bones of the app incorporating

• Login/sign up screens

• Preference selection >> generate results based on preferences

• Explore new cafes in the area (based on preferences & past history)

• User profile (my reviews, collections, etc.)

• Collections of cafes

Usability Testing

After having some users test out the screens, I received a lot of feedback that will be implemented in the high fidelity prototype. Some of the feedback included:

• Changing the name of the “search” icon in the navigation bar because it is hard to distinguish it from “explore”

• Adding in a feature that allows users to give permission about their current location or input their own location

• Reordering the content in the dropdown menus to prevent accidentally removing a collection or item in a collection

• Moving "Cafes You've Visited" into Collections and replacing that with Reviews on the profile

The Solution: Key Features

Reflection

The whole process from start to end was a rewarding learning experience that allowed me to gain more insight about designing for users facing a niche problem through convergent thinking. By narrowing down a broader problem by conducting user research and drawing insights from research,  we can move through different cycles of iteration smoothly by adapting to the needs of users.

Within the framework of design thinking, the final prototype can never be perfect. There are additional features or needs of users that may arise, thus products are constantly being updated. Some features that I would like to add in a future iteration include designing more screens that go more in depth about the app.