A Rapid Adaptation to Covid-19 Case Study
Stir Coffee Houses’ bicycle delivery service was an exercise in constraints, resourcefulness and adaptability in the face of the evolving Covid-19 health pandemic in early March 2020. It forced us to differentiate our products from our business. Stir is a small-town, community hub, through the interaction of coffee – not just selling selling by the cup. Because of tight time, public health and financial constraints, we were forced to be creative to continue staying in business. We implemented a bicycle delivery service to serve our community the tools to sustain themselves with coffee while the cafe was closed to the public. I designed an order form from free tools, focusing on usability, to easily allow customers to order from us and staff to manage the orders.
For this project, I was Designer and a Stakeholder (Cafe Manager). I collaborated with Stir Coffee House’s Owner.
Because of the abrupt change to operations, I had three areas of consideration to understand. I needed to understand what other businesses were doing – who was closing, what services offered, how might we be directly affected etc. I had to understand what the the cafe’s business limitations are, and to audit what products and services Stir Coffee House offers. I found while some cafes were closing their doors, coffee roasters and suppliers would continue to operate. In addition to cups of coffee sales, Stir also carries a variety of retail items for at-home brewing. For any solution I found, I had no budget, it must adhere to public health guidelines at the time, and be implemented in 1 week before the cafe would also close it doors to the public.
Using social media, we quickly saw how other cafes in the greater area were responding to the situation, as well as our providers.
Similar to Stir, many cafes were choosing to close to the public. Some others were offering take-out only. Coffee roasters though, (specifically our supplier) were continuing operation.
I considered what Stir Coffee House sold. Other than food and drink, we carried a variety of retail items: coffee beans, loose-leaf tea, home-brewing equipment, drink-ware, and various branded merchandise items. Fortunately, supply chain for these would remain intact.
While not as high volume sales as food/ drink, retail items like coffee beans are recurring, and brewing equipment are higher price points.
The solution needed to support social distancing measures, and be flexible for new changes as they appeared.
There was no budget available for external services or tools. Our solution needed to be low cost (free) to implement and maintain.
Had a 1 week deadline to find and implement a solution before the cafe would close to the public.
Our solution needed to be quick and simple to implement, understand and use – for both customers and staff
From my assessment, Stir had one major product of focus – retail coffee bags. Although customers were staying home, their coffee habit remained. Customers from the local community could order online, and Stir would deliver to them by bicycle. Delivery to the customer complied with social distancing guidelines, and delivery by bicycle aligned with Stir’s environmental, community and fuel cost concerns. The other solution to design for was the ordering system for this delivery program. I identified 3 proto-persona types who would use this system.
Early-adopter type. Usually tech-savvy and/or open to digital solutions. Familiar with Stir’s products
Less tech-inclined. Often has lots of questions about product or process. Needs guidance.
Owner of Stir Coffee House. Tech-literate as long as there’s a structure or template to follow. New products need a short learning curve.
I based my personas on stereotypes of my experiences with common customer interactions. I separated them into two major types, based on digital ability and experience with our products.
The third, Robert, is a specific person. I included him as a generalization of himself.
I identified 3 solution areas:
Because staff were being let go, so as to not be a transmission point, Stir couldn’t offer take-out service. Also, we agreed coffee beverages didn’t travel well for delivery. Fortunately, we had supply of retail items, especially coffee. Although customers were staying home, many still needed coffee for home-brewing.
Retail coffee bags and other items also have a shelf life, and scale decently against the labour of 1 person. Stir is also the only specialty coffee supplier in it’s geographic area.
With no budget, we couldn’t use a delivery service – the fees were prohibitive. Also, because Stir was closing to the public, and we had to let go of staff, only the owner was available to deliver.
We decided to deliver by bicycle because:
The order system needed to be asynchronous, as only owner would be managing the system. Phone orders were impractical as no-one would be at the shop. And, again, with no budget, we couldn’t use an e-commerce service (eg. Shopify).
I built an order system using JotForm – a form building tool I’d had experience using before. It’s a free, modular tool, with simple customizability and allowed email confirmations. Email confirmations allowed for payment arrangements to be managed off-platform (direct between customer and cafe).
Since staff were being laid off, the tool needed to be simple for the owner of Stir Coffee House to manage and operate on his own. Because of the time and cost constraints, I designed the order system using the free form building tool JotForm. I had previous experience using this tool at a different role for inter-cafe ordering and thought the research time, learning curve and/ or cost of other tools was prohibitive. JotForm was also simple and flexible to use and update for a non-design-skilled person. Both myself (at the time) and the owner lacked visual design skills. I relied instead on written copy to guide users in ordering.
Of the solutions, the order system is the main touch point for users. I used my two customer types to map out a rough flow through the order system for each.
At the time, lacking formal UI design training, I relied on text to guide users through the order process (as well as form a template Stir’s owner could copy when updates needed to be made).
Information needed to be scannable and simple. Asking only enough essential information to complete a transaction.
Testing for the order system was very opportunistic. I relied on asking customers and staff to validate on the fly. I focused on if wording or instructions were clear, and making testing the automated notifications and emails were sending and receiving correctly.
– M. Cook
While not the most visually appealing or technically polished, the delivery service was well received. Looking forward, with more skill and time, I’d address three issues.
1/ I’d like to conduct more formal usability tests – to see how well I addressed or missed customer pain points.
2/ With design skills, I’d like to make the service more visually appealing, and fix hierarchy issues.
3/ Integrate the order system better into Stir’s website and explore more dedicated e-commerce tools.
I’m proud of this project because it forced me to be resourceful. It was my first opportunity to design and ship a product to a real customer base. Now that I have more experience, there are a few areas I would like to change. First, with more time, I’d like to conduct more structured user interviews and usability tests. Second, with more skill, I’d like to improve on the visual hierarchy and appeal. Last, with a budget, I’d like to explore other dedicated e-commerce tools, to increase usability.
