Coffedo - The student coffee app

Our Coffedo Team consists of four nice students who created a practical coffee ordering app for students and teachers. Klaus, Sylvia, Filip & Alex are the team members creators, designers and testers. First we came up with the idea while we were standing in front of a coffee machine wondering why there isn't any lactose free coffee. From this moment we stuck to this great idea and moved on brainstorming. Secondly, we designed our app in different steps, beginning with 5-Minute-Paperprototypes to designing the whole app in an online designer application. Finally, we usability-tested our app with different students and fine-tuned the design of our app. In the following blog, you will find a history beginning from the start till the end of our design and testing period.

Our First Idea

Initially, the origin of our idea went on when our team was waiting for a coffee in front of a coffee machine at university, while wondering why there is no lactose free coffee from coffee machines yet. We talked about this issue for a long time after and came up with another idea to create a app where customers would be able to create their own coffee with different milk - coffee - sugar combinations. Furthermore, we decided on which functions our app should provide. We came up with the following list:

• Loading Screen
• Home Screen
• MyCoffee Screen
• Settings
• Payment Method
• Account Management
• Coffee Configuration Guide
• Coffee Ordering Info Screen
• Coffee Finder

Persona

To tackle the problem at hand the team first had to identify three different personas. Julia, Chris, Simon
- they all represent students with different needs on coffee-machines. Julia is an influencer and needs her coffee to be instagrammable and also has a strong need for mild substitutes or even coffee alternatives. Chris on the other hand doesn't earn much and gets almost no sleep, thereby he prefers to enjoy a good coffee for a reasonable price. Lastly, Simon is very eco- and animal friendly and therefore likes to have milk substitutes and bring his own reusable cup. To identify those an empathy map was used. By identifying these personas the team was able to see the key needs of their prospective customers which in particular are: a need for substitutes, quickness, availability and a good design and brand identity. From this the team moved on to design the perfect coffee-machine app helping our personas solve their problems and tackle their needs when it comes to good quality coffee services. 

Prototypes

In the following section, we want to illustrate a history of our prototypes.

Our first Prototypes

We started by drawing the crazy 8's in class, Here, every team member folded a sheet of paper, so that 8 section appear. Then, you have 5 minutes to draw a first design into that.

Crazy 8's combined

After designing these 4 sheets of paper, we sat again together and created our first official paper prototype:

Usability Test

In order to get first feedback for our digital prototype we started usability testing. We came up with a couple of research questions which were designed to look into how easy the app is to use. We designed a test plan which described the 3 personas. The testers needed to go through 9 tasks. These tasks where built in a way that the user goes through all functions the app has to offer. Research Question & Tasks & Script & Personas are in the following document. 

Final Version

https://app.uizard.io/p/7459c8a2

For the final prototype were sadly were limited by the program in use. Since we had a maximum of ten pages only we were had to compromise for the app. 

The following list contains the improvements we were able to add to our final prototype of the app. 

it is now possible to type in a new credit card number

Feedback after adding a new credit card number is now built into the page

after choosing a coffee in the menu there is a text field that should tell you which coffee you chose. 

it is now additionally possible to choose to pay on the coffee machine (not only via app)

it is now possible to choose between saving a self created coffee and exiting the menu and saving the creation and order it right away. 

Known compromises and Limitations 

The prototype still doesn’t allow to choose a coffee by clicking in its name, because the program we used for prototyping doesn’t has this option. 

It wasn’t possible to adjust more than top point on dropdown menus. That’s the reason why we weren’t able to add the point „no milk“. 

Digital Prototype

We made a short youtube video, where you can see our digital prototype, enjoy. :)

Conclusion

The aim of our project was to make a perfect coffee machine for students. The interesting thing about our machine is, that you can order through a mobile device, pay with credit card and order any coffee you want, even one with vegan milk. It is perfect for people who are lactose intolerant, or simply are picky about their coffee. We were developing our prototype throughout the whole semester. We started simple with "crazy eights" design and developed the app into the state in which it is now and which we presented to you. After usability testing, we upgraded the prototypes with the feedback given to us from people who conducted the usability tests. We put a lot of work, time and most importantly passion into our project. We did our best to bring it into the stadium in which it is now. We hope, that our idea is helpful for anyone who likes coffee and that one day it might come true. 

(If we would sell water in our coffee machines, it would be this one)