UX Case Study: Waiting in Line Boredom for Coffee Lovers in Saudi Arabia
How can we make waiting in line more fun and less boring?
Waiting is an inevitable part of life, people can do anything and everything to avoid standing in a queue for something .They may even leave without the service or product we really need only because we don’t have to stand in a long line. This case offers a solution that will save their valuable time and make the process of waiting fun and enjoyable!
Why This Case Study ?
This research was an assignment project given by Misk Academy for UX immersive program. The goal of this project is to come up with suitable design solution for our users problem who get bored while standing in line.
The amazing team: Maryam Alfairouz, Raneem Aldajani , Ali Almunajjam
Project Duration : 1 Week
Research
We began gathering information using multiple tools such as doing desk research and interviews to investigate the problem of line boredom and understand the user’s needs.
Also, setting research questions that serve our goal to concentrate on solving the main problem.
- Desk Research
We started researching reviews in coffee shops in websites and apps such as TripAdvisor, Google Maps and Foursquare. While searching, most of the cafe’s regard waiting lines play a fundamental part of users’ reviews. As they are mentioned in almost every review, saying that it enhanced the experience or made it worse. As an example, Starbucks’ waiting lines are slow to pass in because of the order time, as the consumer may take up to 4.5 minutes to order and pay.
2. Interviews
To explore the actual problem and know it’s consequences . We conducted an interview where seven coffee lovers participated to answer our four interview questions.
Interview Questions with Users:
1- What is your favorite café to drink coffee and when ?
2- Can you describe to me how you feel while waiting in line?
3- what would you do if you saw a long line on Café before entering?
4- How can your experience in the waiting line be better?
Our Users:
- Coffee lovers above 18 years old.
- Drink coffee in the evening & Morning.
- Smartphones users
The answers that were provided by participants were used to create Affinity Map to explore similar behaviors from users.
Affinity Mapping:
Problem Statement
After taking desk research points in addition to interviews, the study got a deep insight into the problem . We found that coffee lovers in Saudi Arabia dislike waiting in lines as they feel bored and they feel that their valuable time is wasted. One of the interviewed users described her hatred of waiting as
“I want to scream as hard as I can whenever I’m waiting in a line because I’m very bored”.
Some may even avoid going to certain crowded cafes in the evening because they want to avoid waiting in line. With that being said, we want to offer a solution that will make the process of waiting in lines take less time and to be fun at the same time.
Key Insights
- All the interviewed users feel bored while waiting in line.
- Most of our users prefer to go to popular places like Starbucks and Dunkin so most of them have long waiting lines.
- The majority of users drink their coffee in the evenings.
- Incentives that drive users to wait in line are offers, lovely environment and fast Wi-Fi
- Users have different habits while waiting in the line. Most of them spend their time using their phone : reading novels or articles , chatting with friends , listening to podcasts or songs.
- Some of the interviewed users cancel entering the cafes when they see a long line to avoid boredom.
Suggested Solutions
- Provide users with a comfortable way to have less waiting time in café without getting bored.
- Provide users with an option to order their coffee while waiting in line.
- Analyze the time that most of the café get crowded.
- Provide users with incentives to tolerate waiting in the line.
Ideate
Our idea is to help coffee lovers have their coffee with a short line waiting and without getting bored. So, at the time we create the app that serves their needs users will easily get their coffee without feeling bored or wasting time.
Solution
Our solution was to create an app that provides coffee lovers with a comfortable way to have less waiting time in a café without getting bored. So, users who sign up and have an account can order their coffee while waiting in line. By this we could reduce the time that each user spends in front of the cashier that causes this problem. Also, users can play some of the games in the app and get a 5 % discount for the next order. This would work as an incentive to make users tolerate waiting in line.
User Flow
Since our goal is eliminating line boredom, we create a user flow that allows users to order while standing in the line and then enjoy their time by playing and earning rewards.
Wireframes
Prototypes
In this stage, we created a paper prototype by using A4 paper, black. We want to test our solution. We did the test on one user and the result was good. We find many ideas to improve in terms of clarifying for the users and making the experience more interactive.
What can we do better?
- Select participants from different areas men and women
- Usability test of the prototype with users.
- Develop a high-fidelity prototype and test it with the client again.
- Plan, Plan and also Plan before starting :)
Finally, as a UX learners, we would like to hear your feedback and advice.
Thank you!
