For this project, we followed a Design Thinking approach, putting a strong emphasis on empathizing with our target audience. Through research, ideation, and prototyping, we focused on understanding user needs and pain points to craft an intuitive and engaging experience. The goal was to design an impactful e-commerce solution that not only met business objectives but also provided real value to users.
1. Empathize
We wanted to find out how people choose their coffee brand, what are their preferences, if they are aware of what happens to their money invested in such products, as well as what it would take for them to trust a transparent and fair organization that relies on small coffee producers.
To gather as much information as possible in a short time interval, we combined the user interviews with contextual inquiry sessions. We managed to extract the data we needed through 7 interviews, covering both the attitudes and the behavioural aspects of our users.
Interview Question Examples
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think
of a good coffee?How would you describe the role of coffee in your
day-to-day life?How do you think your purchasing habits affect what
is happening behind the final product?
Contextual Inquiry *
What are you looking for when buying coffee?
What would motivate you to choose a product over another?
*the users were asked to present how they would search online
for a new coffee they might enjoy
We used empathy maps to explore user behaviors, emotions, and motivations, identifying common patterns and interests. Understanding their thoughts and feelings helped us design an experience that resonates on a deeper level, making it more intuitive and engaging.
Interview
Contextual inquiry
Building on our empathy maps, we created two detailed personas with distinct needs, attitudes, and expectations. These personas served as a foundation for the next stages, like user journeys, and provided the team with valuable insights to guide brand development and future decisions
2. Define
To frame our design challenges, we used POV Mad Libs, a structured yet creative way to define user needs. This exercise helped us translate insights from empathy maps and personas into clear problem statements, ensuring our solutions were truly user-centered and impactful.
Charles
[user]
needs to
see the company's
practices and values
[user’s need]
because
it helps him take an informed decision
when buying coffee
[insight]
3. Ideate
How-Might-We…?
Using our POV Mad Libs statements, we crafted How-Might-We questions to spark creative problem-solving. This approach helped us reframe challenges as opportunities, guiding brainstorming sessions toward innovative, user-centered solutions.
Brainstorming
With our How-Might-We questions defined, we ran brainstorming sessions to explore a wide range of potential solutions, generating creative ideas that directly addressed user needs and pain points.
Affinity Diagram
We organized ideas based on their relevance to the project, uncovering key themes such as company transparency and goals, the well-being of farmers, and fostering a connection between users and the people behind the coffee. This process highlighted the critical areas that need attention and informed the structure of our website, all while ensuring e-commerce functionality remains a priority.
We mapped out user journeys using personas and use-cases to spark more ideas. This helped us pinpoint key touchpoints, spot potential issues in the user flow, and come up with even more ways to improve the experience.
Stage
Main
activity
Positive
Feeling
Negative
Customer
expectations
Experience
Motivation
Needs to buy a coffee
that he didn’t try before because he wants to
taste something new
Gets ready to compare
tons of brands, trying
to find the right coffee
for him
Excited to try something new, but already feels overwhelmed by the amount of information he needs to go through to find the right coffee.
Discovery
Opens Google on his laptop and searches for “organic coffee”
Starts reading and gets captivated by a picture with the farmers in a greenery place
Expects to find a results
list with different coffee businesses that brand themselves as organic
An easy way to navigate
to the main website and read more about the company
Finds an article with a title that says “Top 10 organic coffees 2022”
Clicks on the underlined name of the brand and gets navigated to the main website
Browsing
Lands on the homepage of Iburu’s coffee website
Starts scrolling and reaches a section regarding the coffee
🤩
To see details about the coffee and some mentions about the farmers
To read more about the properties of the coffee
Welcomed by the farmers and notices the nature theme on the website through colours and pictures
Quickly notices basic information on the package and reads about the uniqueness of the region
Decision
Wants to read more about the brand, so goes to
“The company” page
Goes to the farmers page and reads the backstory of a few farmers
Wants to check if the coffee is indeed what he wants, so he navigates to the “Shop” page
🤩
Read more about the brand’s mission and vision
Read about the challanges of the farmers and their needs
A large variety of products and in-depth description about the coffee’s properties
Sees the measurable goals the company has, as well as videos about the back story, which increase his trust level
Sees pictures with the coffee farms and loves to see that he can send questions/messages through the form on the page
Quickly notices basic information on the package and reads
about the uniqueness
of the region
Purchasing
Despite the lack of options, he decides to help the farmers hoping the coffee is also good and adds 1 bag to the cart
Goes to checkout and completes the personal details and delivery address
Uses with Google Pay in order to avoid filling out more forms
🤩
Easy way to the
checkout process
Secure and fast
payment method
Get a confirmation that the order was placed and an invoice in the e-mail
Notices the coffee item
in a dropdown linked to the shopping cart item
in the top-right corner
of the page
Notices multiple payment methods, including Apple and Google Pay
Gets a confirmation pop-up with special thanks letting him know he will get the invoice when the order is processed.
We organized all the ideas into a clear, new structure for the website. Although the layout is familiar, the content focuses on the farmers and the business, directly answering users' needs. Our next step is to present the information in the most effective way possible.
4. Prototyping
Sketches
In the prototyping phase we started to quickly visualize all the ideas we came up with in the Ideate step. Our focus with the sketches was to figure out the narrative of the website and explore various layout options.
With a clear understanding of the content we needed to present, we shifted our focus to layout structure, visual hierarchy, and navigation—ensuring a highly usable and intuitive solution.
We refined wireframes into a polished visual design, focusing on color, typography, and layout for a strong brand identity. Beyond usability, we aimed to evoke emotion and create a meaningful connection between users and the farmers.
5. User testing
At this stage, I conducted five think-aloud user testing sessions, focusing on usability and visual communication. My goal was to determine whether the information was well-structured and if the website effectively conveyed the intended emotions. Here are a few question examples from the session
“What’s your first impression of the company without scrolling further?”
Does the website convey the feeling we want to communicate?
“What problem does
Iburu Coffee try to solve?”
Do people understand what this company is all about?
“Can you tell me what is Eric's main goal?”
Can people easily find information they might be interested in?
“What do you think makes Iburu different from other businesses?”
Do people understand how this project is different than others?
The feedback was really positive—users quickly understood the purpose of the project and navigated the information with ease. Most found the experience intuitive and left with a strong, positive impression of the company.
First 5 seconds
Connecting with farmers
Supporting with farmers
Origin & History
Buying coffee
Process of coffee
After a few interactions
Help farmers
Eliminate unfairness
Meet farmers
Supporting the community
Help people discover a different coffee
Health ecosystems
Organic/Eco products
Differentiators
Transparency
The region
Fair trade
Sustainability
Community
Impressions
Focused on fairness
Focused on farmers
Visually pleasing
Well structured
Cozy
Trustworthy
Organic
Intuitive
