Improve History Transaction Feature and Redesign Starbucks Mobile App
Background
Who doesn’t know Starbucks? It seems that almost everyone knows this brand, or even becomes one of their favorite. Starbucks is a coffee shop from the United States that is very popular and is the largest coffee franchise in the world. They have a wide selection of coffee and other drinks on the menu. Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at Pike Place Market in Seattle, United States. And by the early 21st century, Starbucks had a presence in dozens of countries around the world and operated more than 20,000 stores.
In Indonesia, Starbucks has many outlets in almost every big city. The first Starbucks Coffee Indonesia outlet was at Plaza Indonesia which was operated on May 17, 2002. As of January 2018, Starbucks Coffee Indonesia already has 326 branches located in all major cities (22 cities).
Why Starbucks?
The reason why Starbucks is more popular than all other coffee brands around the world especially in Indonesia, is not simply that their coffee tastes better. If you look at the last few years, there are lots of local coffee brands that are not inferior in terms of coffee taste and even at a much cheaper price. But then again, Starbucks is still popular and has its own connoisseurs.
Maybe even when you’re visiting a new place and have a choice of two Starbucks coffee shops and a local coffee shop, you’re more likely to choose Starbucks. Why? Because Starbucks as a brand does not only sell coffee as their product, but also other attributes that ultimately make Starbucks something that you know and are familiar with.
Then, why did I take this brand into my personal project case study? With the size of Starbucks and with the products they offer (besides the coffee drink menu of course) the advantages they highlight that you can feel when visiting their outlets are familiarity & prior experience (if you have been to various Starbucks outlets, you will definitely feel familiar because they have more or less similar feel & interior). And the most important thing is the overall experience. Starbucks does not only allow people to have a coffee, pay and leave — they give an experience that is so memorable and joyful to their customers, that they always come for more.
One form of experience that also increases their customer loyalty is the Starbucks card. Which is where you can top up the balance on the card to pay for your order at Starbucks. Every purchase you make with a Starbucks card will earn you points and from these points you can get various rewards and increase your member level. With the rapid development of technology and the convenience that can be found in the hand of a cellphone, Starbucks has finally released an application that supports improving the experience and also makes it easier for their customers. Starbucks physical card now no longer needs to be carried because it can be accessed in the application.
Then what’s the problem?
As I mentioned earlier, Starbucks is popular not only in terms of the coffee menu they present, but also in terms of the overall experience. But, the same thing I can’t get in their app. I use the Starbucks app to make payments and collect rewards. However, it turns out that the UI and UX of their application are not able to balance the experience they offer in their offline store
Problem Hypothesis
Based on my personal experience above, I tried to do a little research on comments on Google Play and the App Store. And yes, I found a lot of similar comments about the unpleasant experience of using the Starbucks app.
Based on the experience of several users, Starbucks still has shortcomings, especially from the UX side. Here are some points that become my hypothesis:
- Users have difficulty finding and checking their purchase transaction history
- The nearby store feature in the application does not auto-detect location and only displays stores in Jakarta, the user must enter manually
- Users feel that the UI display is not pleasant
- Too many passcode inputs when using the app and no face id or finger print features
Objective
Due to the many local coffee shops that have sprung up and present applications that make it easy for their user to buy the coffee, Starbucks needs to improve the positive user experience and user interface when using the Starbucks application. Therefore the objectives are:
- Find the main problems and challenges faced when users use Starbucks app
- Validating user pain points when using Starbucks app, especially when using the transaction history feature
- Find a way to reduce user pain points when using Starbucks app
Methodology
I used a qualitative methodology with in-depth interview to find out the pain points and motivations of users in using Starbucks app. I also did a competitive analysis to understand how the flow and UI/UX features of other apps compare to the Starbucks app.
Research Timeline
Creating research plan: 14 April 2022
Create discussion guide: 15 April 2022
Competitive analysis: 21–22 April 2022
Recruitment: 9–11 May 2022
In-depth interview: 13–17 May 2022
Analysis: 19–26 May 2022
Research Process
Competitive analysis
Compare the user flow, features, strengths, and weaknesses of the Starbucks app with other similar apps. This process will help me identify weaknesses as well as help me to get inspired for solutions that are familiar to users. I chose the Kopi Kenangan and Fore Coffee apps because they are similar brands.
The conclusion is:
- Signing up on Starbucks app is much more complicated than Kopi Kenangan and Fore Coffee app
- The history transaction feature is much easier to access and find in the Kopi Kenangan and Fore Coffee app
- The Fore Coffee app’s UI is much different compared to Starbucks app and Kopi Kenangan app but it’s still easy to use
- The overall UI/UX of Starbucks app is still a bit lagging when compared to the Kopi Kenangan application and the Fore Coffee application
In-Depth Interview
There are some things that we need to understand more directly from the user so I did an in-depth interview online via zoom with 5 respondents.
Respondent Criteria:
- Male/Female
- 18–45 years old
- National Scale (Nationwide)
- Active user of Starbucks app — has made a transaction at least 1 time in the last 1 month
Key Information Areas
- Overall experience using Starbucks app
- Motivation to use the Starbucks app
- Pain points using the Starbucks app
- Understanding user behaviour while using Starbucks app
Here are the respondents profile from the interview:
Analysis and Insight
Understanding The Users
Before giving a conclusion, there are several things that we need to understand first. Based on the user profile above, we can see that most of them use the Starbucks app to make it easier to get promo info, collect rewards, and be more practical because it’s cardless.
What are they saying about Starbucks app?
As we can see there are some pain points from users when they are using the Starbucks app:
- Can’t find details and purchase history in the application, this can also be an alternative to reduce the use of paper receipts because all purchase details and also the rewards obtained are in the application.
- To view the Starbucks menu in the application, you have to select the Order feature first and this is quite difficult.
- The Order feature is not accurate, because the displayed store location is always in Jakarta.
- It is difficult to top up because the virtual account number changes every time they want to top up
What users like about Starbucks app?
What they like most about the Starbucks application is information about the promos they can get, as well as the rewards feature that gives them information about what rewards they can and will get when their star(points) increases.
However, there are some stuff that still could be improved:
- Users feel that the transaction history feature needs to be highlighted and improved so that they can see the details of their purchases. This can also be an alternative to reduce the use of receipts, besides this feature can be a user’s personal data where he can check his spending for Starbucks purchases and how many stars (points) they get for each purchase.
- Users mention that they need the menu feature, where they can see the existing menus through the application. This feature actually already exists, but the user is required to select the store first. Some users find this difficult for them because they only want to see the menu, and some people don’t even know that this menu feature exists.
- In addition to the menu features, the user stated that it would be more fun if there was a secret recipe menu or an interesting menu outside the standard menu that is usually displayed or a personalized menu based on the user’s own interests.
- Some users are also annoyed by the placement of the pay button on the home page which is on the bottom right. They also mention that the Starbucks app looks and UI still can be improve to be more eye pleasing.
- The ordering feature through the application is considered ineffective according to users, because when they want to use this feature, the nearest Starbucks offline store is not detected automatically, only displays stores in Jakarta. So they have to manually enter the location or area they are in, which requires more effort.
- Lastly, users feel that it would be better if when they want to top up, Starbucks creates a dedicated Virtual Account number, so that the journey when they want to top up the card balance becomes shorter because the Virtual Account number does not change.
Customer Journey Map
A user journey (or customer journey map) is a visual journey of the user across the solution. The user journey below is a user journey that describes the process when they are new users who want to use the Starbucks app as their means of payment at Starbucks stores. The user journey considers not only the steps the user takes, but also their feelings, pain points, and pleasure moments.
Affinity Diagram
After doing the IDI, the insights obtained from these results are represented using an affinity diagram. Using affinity diagramming techniques can help us discover embedded thinking patterns by sorting and grouping language-based information into relationships.
User Persona
An in-depth understanding of the target audience is essential to creating an outstanding product. User personas help us find answers to one of their most important questions, “Who do we design for?” By understanding the expectations, concerns, and motivations of the target users, it is possible to design a product that will satisfy the user’s needs and therefore be successful.
Problems
Based on the results of the analysis using affinity diagram and customer journey map, it was found five main problems faced by users. In this case, I ignored order feature problem and fixed virtual account number because it is a technical problem. Therefore, three main problems were taken as follows:
- Users find it difficult to find details of their transaction history in the Starbucks application
- Users find it difficult to see what menus are in the Starbucks application, because they have to choose the store first
- The overall appearance of the UI is still less eye pleasing
Recommendations
These are the actionable insights that I recommend:
- Improve the transaction history feature which is detailed and can replace paper receipts, and is easy for users to access
- Create menu features that can be directly accessed without having to choose a Starbucks store
- Improve UI appearance
Key Take Away
- The use of applications to purchase food or drinks at a store can make it easier for users to limit their spending
- By having detailed transaction history in the application, users can explore their monthly expenses and the rewards they get from each transaction
- The easy-access menu feature can reduce queuing time at the cashier because users can preview the menu they want to order
Limitations
- The design of the mockup and prototype is limited to the check transaction history, and easy-access menu feature
- UT testing will start from the home screen
- The UT process is carried out by improving check transaction history, easy-access menu feature, and top-up balance
Ideation
User Flow
The following is the user flow of the check transaction history and easy-access Starbucks menu.
The following is the user flow of the easy-access Starbucks menu
Information Architecture
Information Architecture is a method used to arrange all flow, content, and design requirements in an application. The IA in this application, especially in check history transactions and easy-access Starbucks menu are as follows:
Prototype
Wireframe
The following is a wireframe of the redesign of the Starbucks app:
Mockup
After going through several stages of research and ideation, here is a mockup design for the Starbucks app:
The following is an explanation of the Starbucks application that has been carried out in answering the 3 (three) main problems in this research:
History Transaction
One of the problems that users face is, they want an easy-to-access transaction history feature. Therefore, I combine the card and rewards features and provide easy access to view transaction history.
Easy-access Menu
Another problem that users face is, they want an easy-to-access menu. Previously this feature was in the store feature where users found it difficult to access because they had to choose the store first while they only wanted to see the available menus. The ease of accessing this menu can also make queues not long because they are confused about choosing the menu at the checkout counter.
Overall UI
And for the last problem is the UI, some users feel that the UI can be improved again to be more eye-pleasing.
