Ø21 [ 8 Hours of Daylight ]

Dec 31, 2022

Hello y’all, Hope everyone is enjoying their winter so far.

For me personally, the shortest day of the year is always enjoyable, when you wake up it’s so dark and quiet outside after a fresh snow. There is something calming about the way the snow dampens all of the sounds around and makes even the darkest nights a bit brighter.

Winter also brings the holidays around which gives me time to reflect and be with family. I know I’m fortunate to get a break at the end of the year it keeps things in perspective and helps me to not take the things that are given to me for granted.

Personally, I’m excited for it to warm up a bit so the family and I can get outside more!

Starbucks In-Store UX Suffers Because of Mobile Ordering

Starbucks is a bit like Mc Donalds, it’s consistent and you know what to expect. I had finished an appointment and I wanted to grab some coffees for my wife and I. I have tons of options near this part of town, 4 to be exact, so I chose the newest one.

As I approached I saw the drive-through line was pretty long, about 10 cars deep. It was early and I knew the commute to work or school was still in full swing. I scanned inside, I could see it was pretty empty. Just an army of baristas and a couple at a small table. I marked the red Honda Civic as my car to beat and headed inside.

I was greeted right as I came in and ordered my two drinks, a black coffee and a latte. The drive through was in full swing and I saw there were a few tickets but besides myself and the couple enjoying their newspaper the store was empty.

I knew something was up when I looked over to the online ordering area on the counter and saw a few drinks already there just sitting. While I waited more drinks were being added to the online order or order ahead area.

A few more folks came in all ordering and sitting down, I was still waiting to get back to my car so I could get back to work. As I continued to wait maybe another 15 drinks were made and added to the counter. None of these were picked up and no one came in for them yet. After about 25 minutes of waiting I was finally given my drinks and I was able to head out.

This got me thinking is this an issues in larger cities where there might be more foot traffic. As a designer I really wanted to understand more about how the system actually works. I have my assumptions that is just adds the orders in the order in which they are received.

I also assume there is a push for what is probably the more accessible way of ordering with the order ahead. In it’s current state however it does leave much to be desired if you’re walking in to order a drink and plan on leaving.

This isn’t the first time this has happened to me either, I’ve experienced this at Starbucks in airports as well with the order ahead system.

Now, I have no ideas on how I would address this system to make it more manageable for the various customers. It’s a great exercise though to think through the various aspects of the service they provide and how do they address it. I wonder what are some of the variables the teams at Starbucks are looking at when deciding or creating the system.

As of now, I’ll just have to order ahead.

New Screen Shots and Name

I’ve been steadily working on the visuals this month, January will be another code month and I’ve got a long list of things I’d like to get accomplished.