FREELANCE CONTRACT
CAFE MAGIQUE APP
Overview
Cafe Magique is a lovely, little local cafe located in the heart of the famous New French Quarters Orleans, Louisiana. They eagerly aim to serve the most delicious fresh bakes and cafe delights. With their wonderful pricing, they have a variety of treats and drinks to accommodate every customer. Cafe Magique has a target customer base that ranges from busy individuals who want a quick treat to catering large groups for events. The focus of this project was to make a mobile app for Cafe Magique. I designed this app as one of my first freelance jobs. I was new to UX Design; but I found this shop on a visit with my family to New Orleans. I asked the owner about their app and was not surprised when they said they did not have one. I gave them my contact information and offered my services. It took some time but they eventually reached out and we reconnected. I really enjoyed working with them and the freelance developer we found through Upwork.
My Role
Product Designer
Cafe Location
New Orleans, LA
Responsibilities
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Research
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Conducting interviews
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Sketch & Wireframes (Paper & Digital)
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Prototyping (Low & High)
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Iterating designs
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Accessibility
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Usability Studies & testing
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Polished final designs
Challenge
Busy individuals and groups do not have the time to effectively create meals and drinks in their allotted time; it is easier to have someone else or a business make it for them. The challenge is to find a way to help Cafe Magique improve their KPIs and engage customers to drive business success.
Solution
Creating an app for Cafe Magique that is efficient and simple to easily place pick-up orders for individuals or cater to large groups.
Design Process
Empathy & Research
Define & Evaluation
Ideate & Solve
Test & Iterate
Product Launch
Research & Define
Research Summary
I administered interviews which allowed me to make empathy maps to better understand the user and their needs. I found that the primary use of the app would be for the busy individuals who do not have time to make their morning coffee and breakfast. The secondary use is for catering events that need to schedule their orders in a timely manner.
The research gathered from the user group clarified reasons that individuals or groups could not make these items on their own. The main reason was center around timing, for things such as: family, obligations, and other interests. Other factors were discovered as well, like: to get out of their normal environment or simply having something to do.
Persona
Name: Jen S.
Age: 32
Education: Master’s Degree
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Family: single mom of 2 kids
Occupation: Art Teacher
Jen is a single mom with a career as an elementary school art teacher. Her favorite form of art is painting. She wants to use this cafe for quick orders for when she is low on time. Instead of making her own coffee, she would rather place her order online to pick up orders for herself and coworkers.
With work and family, sometimes I don’t have time to cook the special treats I need for my kids.
- Jen S.
Problem Statement
Jen S. is a busy single mother and art teacher who needs a quick and easy app to place an order for pastries or coffee and tea drinks because she has no time to make them herself.
Frustrations
"The cafe gets so busy that it would be easier to have a way to order without waiting in long lines to place orders."
Goals
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Have a streamlined app to easily place orders for teas, coffees, and pastries.
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Ensure she maintains her time management.
Journey Map
Pain Points
Timing
Busy Individuals do not always have time to bake or make drinks.
Accessibility
Not all technology is assistive in their design.
Competitive Audit
Ideation & Prototype
User Flow
Paper
Wireframes
Sketching the iterations of the app screens allowed the components to acknowledge the user pain points. Aiming to save the user time, I started with the home screen where I designed it so that the user have a easier way to complete their order and make it faster for their next order.
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Lo-Fi Wireframes
Mid-Fi Wireframes
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Testing & Iteration
Study Type
Unmoderated Usability Study
Participants
2 females, 1 non-binary, 2 males
1 female with hearing impairment, various ethnic backgrounds, Ages 19-65 years old
Location
USA, remote
Length
15-20 minutes
Usability Findings
From the two rounds of usability studies, users want to place their orders faster and easily. The first round of users gave some guidance on how to better design the mockups. Whereas the second study provided insights for adjustments to take out some steps to make it easier to navigate.
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Quick access to features
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Give the option to search items within the app
Iterations
According to the feedback, I did iterations to improve the app.
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The addition of the vertical scroll to see clickable items of interest to help the user identify what they want faster and easily order.
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I added icons and navigation at the bottom of the screen for quick access to features of the app.
I found that removing the descriptive text, so that only the subject name would be seen, allows the user to make easy, quick selections. The categories were also moved closer together but separated with dividers to avoid confusion due to proximity.
From the "Customize Your Coffee" Screen, I removed the boxed blurb and image from the top of the page. It provided unnecessary bits of information. Now the design is cleaner.
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Final Designs
Conclusion
Impact
The app eliminated the pain points by making the app easy and faster for the user.
Updates
It has been about 4 or 5 years since I did this project. I did find out that they sold their coffee shop. With the new owner, the name changed along with the app.
What I Learned
During this process, I discovered and learned that you can not rely on just yourself when it comes to providing something for others. You have to get feedback from a variety of people to get the best results through the entire process of iteration and designing.
