Synchronicity: A Case Study
Frothy Monkey — A Business Connected With You
*Disclaimer: I did not work with the actual business. This is an educational case study*
A short history summary for the start of the business to until now correlating it to my journey through the design process. From something small, incomplete to something bigger and organic.
At first, I didn’t have a complete idea of the scope where we were headed with the project. Initially I chose this business because I thought there was a problem with ordering service through the website. It was a challenge. I had no personal connection to the business or its products. Like all things, we started small and naive, but it grew into something bigger and more mature. It was only after listening and learning, becoming connected and slowly understanding what the users really needed. That is when I started to see down the path.
The turning point was near the end of my User Research, pretty much after going through my user interviews. I had little bit of a mindset established when I picked the project assuming I could somehow change ordering service and I had to adjust after learning that coffee shops actually already perfected service.
Through my surveys and my interviews, I was beginning to grasp that a good amount of people weren’t focused on ordering service.
I surveyed a total of 15 people and a total of 5 people for interviews.
Each category had no references to ordering at all. A lot of it seemed varied and diverse in what they wanted. The only thing that connected them was coffee, but something I failed to realize was… the importance of the experience.
Interviews became conversations, they became more organic. Almost like a conversation you would have at a coffee shop. Conversation becomes organic like a living organism that needed to change and grow. This was the experience, something organic.
- When it comes to a coffee shop: Ambiance, atmosphere is King, coffee is only the prince.
- Everyone you know is probably a coffee addict or recovering coffee addict — they just need the caffeine no matter what.
- You will never see one type of person in one, it is always diverse. So with that, make it accommodating and welcoming, but also unique in its niche or representation. There is something there they are connected to, even in all of their individuality.
- These coffee houses are essentially the home away from home — someplace comfortable to settle in at and something authentic or real. A place to getaway without getting away; With friends, With yourself or with strangers. The solution was creating an experience
- Users didn’t want revamped online experiences, they wanted a better in person experience. I was too focused on the online and I had to throw it away to create a more focused idea with a clear path to where I was headed with them.
The real product was not only the coffee. The real product was the experience. Some of these people were going for the experience and without that, the coffee was nothing else but just a drink. The curation, the authenticity, the vibe of the shop was so defining. If there was no place to enjoy it, no atmosphere to take in, no ambiance to take breadth of, no experience to see, the coffee was pretty much nothing.
From after my epiphany, I had to rework my design process and actually implement my HMWs pinpointed onto a solution that was focused on atmosphere and the environment. How can we make any visitor to these shops feel comfortable? Like they had a personal connection to a coffee shop? The users already had the solution in them already. It was about bettering the solutions. Through ideation with several others, I ended up combing up the best solutions that could relate to the users the most into a MVP (Minimal Viable Product).
I felt the only way was asking if the users were best synced up and connected to their environment. Like organisms, a creature can only thrive if they’re best suited for their environment. What about if also… their environment is best suited for them to thrive? We choose in the end what environments are best for us, because we as humans are adaptable to anything. If something doesn’t work — If something doesn’t feel like home, we need something to change. The solution is making their environment flexible to them.
With that, I ended up creating my first wireframes from the solutions I gathered from my ideations leading into a lo-fi prototype. Hoping to create something workable, fascinating and innovative.
Final Thoughts and Moving Forward:
Usability Testing: I’m looking forward to trying to test some of my prototypes and see how well they work. Any bumps in the roads is just sign of improvement to creating something better and tangible.
Future Features: I hope to set up a future feature where a group of people can have a reserved room for events where they can vote for lighting in one set room including projector control along with lighting. A host set up along with so it can be either democratized or controlled by the host.