How can we help a small batch coffee roastery, operated out of a garage in Chicago, stand out in the coffee market?
Our Challenge
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The owner of Small But Mighty Coffee, our client and sole stakeholder, has been running his roastery for several years, and is ready to take his business to the next level. He knows that his website needs to be improved, but he first needs a better understanding of who his customer base is, as well as needing to figure out how his business can stand out in the market. We were ready for the challenge.
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Assumptions we Had...later proven wrong:
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Our target user's demographics would be unclear since many different types of people from various ethnic backgrounds, ages, etc. enjoy drinking coffee
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Users would feel apprehensive about buying coffee online because of not being able to smell it or taste it first
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Users may want variety when exploring different types of coffee
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Users may already be loyal to certain coffee brands, so they probably would not want to try new brands, since they already know what they like
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My Role:
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UX Research
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Conducted a design studio with stakeholder and team
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Duration
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3 week sprint - Team of 3 designers
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Tools:
Figma, Miro, Google sheets, user interviews, surveys, affinity mapping, personas, journey map, competitive analysis, contextual inquiries, design studio
Research Begins
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competitive analysis
First, who would Small But Mighty need to compete against?​
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When we researched these three coffee competitors also located in Chicago, the insights we gathered were similar:
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All three businesses were smaller in size
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These brands value the power of community
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Brand messaging feels personable and highlights their handcrafted products
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These brands highlight how their coffee is sourced, as well as the people involved in the processing of their products.
------> These findings gave us a good understanding about how certain brands are positioning themselves online to attract the most users
Next, we created a survey to understand how users viewed whole bean coffee brands, and how coffee played a role in their lives
We received 80 survey responses that gave us insights about who are target users are
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Almost half of our respondents are between the ages of 25 and 34
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25% of responses were from coffee drinkers 55 and older
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87% of all respondents drink coffee daily
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About 40% of all respondents try new coffee brands nearly every month
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Some respondents said they try different brands every few months
The data we gathered showed that our initial assumptions were incorrect - users are still willing try new coffee brands despite possibly already being loyal to a brand
Key insights from user interviews told us that users really value:
Now we had a clearer picture of the needs of our target audience and what Small But Mighty's competitors were already doing to attract users.
After synthesizing our survey data, we interviewed 7 users between the ages of 25 and 34 as well as 55+. These age ranges proved to be the largest areas of opportunity to target when driving new users to Small But Mighty's site.
Next, we conducted contextual inquiries with users. They explored the sites below, including Small But Mighty's site, and gave us feedback on their experiences when shopping on each site, which allowed us to gather more qualitative insights about our users' online needs and expectations.
Meet Jordan: The coffee lover who believes in the stories behind her coffee
She is the largest part of the consumer base who is less rigid with her purchasing habits, spends more money on coffee products, and is more inclined to see these products offering an elevated or educational experience, which aligns with Small But Mighty’s business goals when connecting with a consumer.
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Jordan seeks coffee brands that communicate their ethical practices. She wants to buy great tasting coffee from a business that is transparent about their sourcing practices and processes.
So what's the main problem?
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Jordan wants to understand the story behind her coffee so she feels more connected to the brand
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Our solution should also make it easy for Jordan to navigate the site so she can be informed about the product information most important to her
Ideation begins...with a design studio!
Our client participated with us in our ideation process that I conducted.
It was neat to share ideas with our client and see our vision for Small But Mighty Coffee sketched out on paper.
Home page
Brew Guide
Product page
After a few rounds of iterations, we arrived at our proposed solutions for Small But Mighty's site, considering the roaster's business objectives, as well as what our ours were saying
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Adding a Brew Guide and "Our Story" page
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UI Redesign
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Improve brand's messaging
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A brew guide would help make for an educational coffee experience which aligns with the needs of Small But Mighty's customer base. Resources like brew guides are commonly used by many of their current competitors on their sites.
A UI redesign would also elevate the site and be visually appealing to users who noted the importance of experiencing a brand visually. Within the UI redesign, we proposed creating content that aligned with Small But Mighty's goals and the user’s goal of communicating to them that they are investing in more than just coffee on an ethical level.
When bringing our solutions to life, users said they needed A little bit more clarity, and wanted to feel more connected to the Small But Mighty brand.
Home page
Users were confused by the "Preorder Now" button on the home page. They didn't understand what they were pre-ordering.
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Since Small But Mighty only sells a one-time, limited-run of a certain type of coffee, we had to change the language on this CTA button to make this more clear to users.
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On our hi-fi mockup, we changed this button to say "Explore Upcoming Roasts" so the user would be able to learn about the upcoming limited coffee release before deciding to purchase anything.
Product Page
Users also didn't know what certain factors like "variety" and "elevation" meant when learning about coffee beans on the product page.
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On our hi-fi mockup, we added the definition of each factor when hovering over each one separately, so the user knows exactly what is being communicated to them.
It was extremely important to users to feel more connected to the brand by understanding how their coffee is made.
In order to make users feel like they are investing in more than just coffee, we made sure to tell the whole story behind their coffee bean - how it was sourced, processed, and what talented person made all of this possible.
Home Page
Product Page
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From our research, we know our users need a highly visual experience, and are attracted to uniqueness and a feeling of exclusivity. We created more engaging messaging to attract users and elevate their experience.
The product page brings the story and craftsmanship of Small But Mighty's Coffee to life.
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So how did our changes positively impact Small But Mighty?
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By driving a deeper emotional connection to the brand and providing an educational experience to users through content, product sales may increase
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On pages like the brew guide, product availability can grow. Via affiliate links or other routes, coffee equipment can be sold to continue to grow sales
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Once the business starts growing, providing educational videos or creating a YouTube channel will not only attract more users, but Small But Mighty's SEO footprint will increase which can possibly turn into a stream of revenue
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Coffee subscriptions may be successful once the business grows!
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Next Steps and reflections
The iterations never stop! As the site continues to grow and testing continues, we would need to see how users respond to the content. For users to make more of a personal connection to the Small But Mighty brand, photography of our client conducting his coffee-making process, and photos of our client "in action," would be important to add on the site. These improvements will help enhance the experience for users.
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Personally, I felt really proud to conduct my first design studio. This helped me feel more confident in my design abilities in general, even though I'll always feel like I have so much more to learn. One step at a time!
Also, our client has deployed our recommendations to test before making them live, so I'll have some great data to report soon!
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