Starbucks Logo
A cup of coffee placed on circle of green leaves making a flower-like shape
ProblemResearchDesignReflection

Overview

Goal
Icon showing a coffee cup covered in a cup sleeve with green leaves drawn on it
Encourage sustainable coffee consumption
Team
Icon showing two people
Kewal Shah
Srijan Jhanwar
Outcome
Mobile icon
Hi-Fi designs handed off to Starbucks design team

1. The Problem

Client
Starbucks Customer Retail Technology Team
Advisors
  • Courtney Sutter - Senior UX Researcher at Starbucks
  • Dr. Richard Henneman - MS-HCI Director
  • Dr. Carrie Bruce - MS-HCI Assistant Director
Users
Starbucks Customers

In 2020, Starbucks formalized its 2030 environmental goals to cut its carbon footprint by 50% by deciding to focus on 5 areas:

  1. Expanding plant-based menu options
  2. Shifting towards reusable packaging
  3. Investing in regenerative agriculture
  4. Better waste management
  5. Innovating the manufacturing and delivery process


In this semester-long project, our goal was to help Starbucks in this mission by encouraging its customers to consume sustainably.

Tools

Xmind Logo
XMind
Qualtrics XM Logo
Qualtrics XM
Adobe Fresco Logo
Adobe Fresco
Figma Logo
FigJam + Figma

2. Research

Navigating Ambiguity

Although our goal was to focus on sustainability, the problem space was very broad. We weren't asked to focus on a particular platform (eg. mobile app or website) or build something purely educational or commercial. We were free to explore out-of-the-box ideas but ensure we had high-fidelity deliverables to present at the end of our 3.5-month timeline. We started by exploring the internet to find existing literature on sustainable coffee consumption and initiatives taken by companies like Starbucks to promote sustainability, documented our findings on a mind-map using Xmind

A mind-map of the sustainability efforts led by Starbucks
Sustainability-related efforts led by Starbucks (click to zoom)
If I were to say what is, probably, the most dominant shift in consumer behavior is this whole shift to plant-based. And that is a shift both in beverage and in food. "

Kevin R. Jonson, ex-Starbucks CEO

We found that the Starbucks research and development team had already identified that the most dominant shift in consumer behavior was a shift towards plant-based items. They had started testing vegan menus and 100% plant-based stores in Seattle.

The other major finding was the waste generated by plastic and paper cups. While Starbucks contributed to 1% of the 600 billion paper and plastic cups distributed globally, it was still a significant amount, and they had already launched the borrow-a-cup program, which encouraged customers t use reusable coffee cups.

Breaking down the problem:
  1. How might we encourage users to consume plant-based products?
  2. How might we boost the borrow-a-cup program to reduce waste?

We divided the ownership of the two problem statements. I was more interested in exploring plant-based menu innovation and I led the background research, interviews, and design in the domain. Therefore, this article will focus on Problem Statement 1.

Research Questions

  1. What motivates users to buy plant-based products?
  2. What is their current view on consuming a plant-based diet?
  3. What concerns do they have about a plant-based diet?
  4. What would incentivize them to increase consuming plant-based products?

Semi-structured interviews

After the completing the background research, we decided to conduct semi-structured interviews as we believed we could get more data by having a casual conversation with our users but also ensuring we get all our key research questions answered. We drafted an interview script on Notion and revised the questions and their order based on feedback from our advisors. Each semi-structured interview was approximately 20 minutes long. We recorded these sessions with the user’s consent and used them to make notes in Google Sheets.

Affinity Mapping

We used Otter.ai to transcribe the interview recordings. After combining these transcriptions with the notes taken during the interview, we transferred them to stickies on and creating an Affinity Map to organize the data and gain insights.

Affinity map of findings gathered from user interview notes

Key Findings

After creating the affinity map, we conducted a virtual "walking the wall" activity by marking important findings on the map with a heart. We shared and discussed these with the Starbucks team before moving forward with concept sketches:

Key findings from user interviews: 1. Health - Users feel a plant-based diet is great for health and reducing calories
2. Taste - Users are more motivated by the taste rather than environmental impact
3. Reward - Users would tend to buy more plant-based options if they are rewarded
4. Focus - Users want to filter out non-relevant items

3. Design

Sketches

To translate the above findings in a visual form, I first made sketches in Adobe Fresco. As users felt they would be curious to try out a new product if Starbucks handpicked it , we introduced a “Drink of the Day,” which would also address the Health finding by telling them how many calories a plant-based drink could help save. It would also provide them an incentive to earn extra reward points. Inspired by a toggle feature in food ordering apps like Zomato and Swiggy in India - where many people consume a vegetarian diet, we introduced a plant-based toggle in our sketches.

Sketches of design ideas addressing the key findings: 

1. Health - Clicking plant-based products will display how the products have a lower calorie count.
2. Taste -  A drink of the week on the homepage will encourage users to try something new. 
3. Reward - Getting the drink of the day would provide bonus stars.
4. Focus - Users can disable non-relevant items using a toggle

After discussing the sketches with our advisors, we started designing Figma. We used Starbucks Creative Expression as a reference for creating our visual design system and then converted our ideas into high-fidelity prototypes. Below is a an overview of the design and prototyping process on Figma and the key features added to a mockup of the Starbucks mobile app.

Drink of the Day

A featured plant-based drink of the day

Drink Customization

Plant-based milk categories and bonus reward points

Plant-based Menu Toggle

A menu toggle for customers who want to switch to a plant-based diet

4. Reflection

As my first major design project with an industry partner, this project was an immense learning experience. I learned how to navigate through an ambiguous problem, structure questions in a research script, and convert ideas into high-fidelity designs within a few weeks. Following are my key takeaways:

  • Sometimes the best solution is not a single solution: Srijan and I decided to decided take the lead on two separate solutions - promoting plant-based menu items and encouraging customers to use reusable cups. We shared our knowledge and findings, but dividing the problem helped us take design decisions more freely and made us more accountable. It also helped us provide the Starbucks team with more fleshed out ideas at the end of the 3-month timeline.
  • A minimalist design shouldn’t reduce user control and transparency: During high-fidelity prototype testing, we observed that some designs reduced user control. For example, the "drink of the day" feature lacked context and users weren’t aware if it was always plant-based. They mentioned it would make them hesitant to click on the "mystery drink" card again. Also, users preferred non-plant-based menu items to be disabled rather than completely hidden when toggling to plant-based. We resolved these issues in the revised prototype.
  • Sometimes the best solution is not a single solution: Srijan and I decided to decided take the lead on two separate solutions - promoting plant-based menu items and encouraging customers to use reusable cups. We shared our knowledge and findings, but dividing the problem helped us take design decisions more freely and made us more accountable. It also helped us provide the Starbucks team with more fleshed out ideas at the end of the 3-month timeline.
  • A minimalist design shouldn’t reduce user control and transparency: During usability testing, we observed that some designs decreased user control. For example, in the "drink of the day" feature users weren’t aware if it was always plant-based. They mentioned it would make them hesitant to click on the card again. Also, users preferred non-plant-based menu items to be disabled rather than completely hidden when toggling to plant-based. We resolved these issues in the revised prototype.
Sparkling yellow stars
Thank you!
Sparkling yellow stars