Starbucks Reservations
GA Case Study
By observing Starbucks goers in their natural habitat, we were able to develop a seamless meeting reservation feature within the Starbucks app.
We set out to see what made Starbucks worth meeting at.
Ben, Melanie, and I did some brainstorming and empathy mapping in order to try understanding what made it a good place to meet for businessmen.
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What we hypothesized from doing this was that timing, space, location, and noise level had a big impact on the decision.
Contextual Inquiry
We actually worked from Starbucks and watched many experiences.
User Interviews
Surveyed 19 people and interviewed 8.
Competitive Analysis
Compared other coffee shops and co-working spaces to Starbucks.
We synthesized our information to define our problem statement.
After observing and interviewing users discussing these factors, we actually learned that the biggest reason businessmen come to Starbucks is to form relationships, and that these factors led to creating the social ambiance that was perfect for this intent.
Key Finding
Impromptu Timing + Conversational Ambiance + One-on-one Table Space + Everywhere Location = Perfect Relationship Growth
While businessmen desired such an atmosphere in order to form these relationships, so did hundreds of others. Our observations showed that Starbucks can be crowded, loud, and sometimes impossible to actually get that one-on-one time needed to create business bonds.
Problem Satement
How might we support growing business relationships that are looking for an available and comfortable space to meet?
The key to solving this was in rapid prototyping.
We wanted to make the booking and reserving processes really simple and rewarding so that the businessmen and women could focus on growing this relationship rather than struggling to find a seat or struggling to use an app.
Our Process
Diverge and Converge
We separately sketched and came together to devise a combined solution.
Rapid Paper Prototyping
We went through 4 iterations on paper before wireframing.
Fully Integrate with App
We did content modeling and found additional ways to integrate with the app.
Our biggest challenge was finding the right flow.
Based on research, we hypothesized that choosing their preferred Starbucks location was the most important, since our interviews revealed that people have their "regular" Starbucks, or want to go to the closest one.
However, after testing, it was clear that users are flexible in Starbucks location if it means they can have a guaranteed spot at their preferred meeting time.
A little extra: Meet in the Middle
One problem we were still perplexed by was that now that users were entering date and time first, we needed a way to find an ideal location for the user. We found through research that many new business relationships actually try to find a location between their two current locations.
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With our current app design, they would have to first find a central address, then type that in, then a Starbucks near there would be found. We added a new feature to accommodate this so they could enter in 2 locations, then we would calculate that middle point for them.
Meet in the Middle Wireflow
Putting it all together.
We worked on putting together 44 screens capturing all of the app interactions around:
- Reserving a table (+ meeting in the middle)
- Adding an order to the reservation
- Checking in
- Viewing history
- Reserve from a store-first secondary flow
Check out our invision prototype or the case study to learn more.
Credits
I led:
- Time Management
- Screener Survey
- Empathy Mapping
- Ideating & Sketching
- Invision
- Testing
- Meet in the Middle Flow
- UI Design
Melanie led:
- Competitive Analysis
- Interview Questions
- Storyboard/Persona
- Visual Touch up
- Presentation
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Ben led:
- Current App Analysis
- Contextual Inquiry
- Interviewing
- Secondary Flows (check in, history, etc)