Kupp - Your personal coffee finder
Kupp is your personal coffee finder that enables you to quickly order your favourite coffee, pay on the go, and then pick it up at the nearest coffee shop. This project was realized with the help of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, Google Hamburg and Comdirect Bank.
Instead of letting the user search for a desired coffee shop on a map that serves great coffee our app searches for a shop based on the users preferred type(s) of coffee(s) instead. The main possible benefit here is to be able to get a good coffee quickly while reducing screen time on a map. This has especially positive implications when using the app hands-free and only with voice—which makes the map obsolete in certain conditions. Additionally, voice based interactions should also be easier since the volume of information from auditory search queries is reduced to a minimum.
The Challenge
In this course we were challenged to ascertain, which requirements needed to be met to design a voice-enabled interface that is easy to use, convenient and meaningful. Several questions had to be dealt with, such as: How does language change the design of graphical user interfaces? Which criteria assess the quality of the interface? When and where does a screen make more sense and when does voice?
User Storys and Design Process
Research & IdeationTo understand how voice assistants (VA's) are being used, we created a survey asking about general user habits—how users interact with their assistant. In addition to that, having small interviews, reading several articles and developer documents for and about Alexa & Google Assistant helped us understand the design-possibilities. We understood that VA is currently being mostly used for simple tasks (controlling smart devices or checking weather) and search queries (Google or locations in Google Maps).
Survey & Interviews
In order to test our idea we first started with a survey to understand general user habits. The survey consisted of two parts—two scenarios—about using the VA in general, and communicating with a “branded” VA. Additionally, we also asked them about their feelings regarding the idea to communicate with a “branded” VA. About 43 people filled out the survey and the most interesting results were as followed:
- 80% prefer using a female VA
- 59% are using the VA while commuting or in hands-free situations
- 83% would find a branded VA interesting
- VA's are mostly used for setting reminders/timers and searching things on Google
Personal interviews were also part of finding out what people feel and think of VA's in general and branded VA's. Here, we also had the opportunity to test out small scenarios of ordering or reserving with the assistant:
- The VA should be able to learn from user demands and give right suggestions when necessary
- Conversations with the VA should be efficient but not sound impolite
- Ordering or Reserving should work seamlessly with voice, but the user still wants a visual confirmation of payment or reservation afterwards
Market AnalysisFurthermore, we did a rough market analysis, where we mainly analyzed several apps and services with similar features and functions to our idea. Establishments like Starbucks or McDonald's have services that let you (pre-)order food or beverages but the more interesting ones were those that offered more variety from different restaurants or coffee shops.
Target GroupFrom what we gathered so far we defined our target group as people who like the process of getting food or drinks to be more streamlined and efficient. On occasion, they want to use the service with voice—while also doing other things.
User Stories
Audrey is an illustrator from London and is visiting Berlin.
It is morning. She doesn’t know Berlin very well and is strolling around to get to know it a bit better. She does like to drink her special daily cappuccino whilst walking and decides to use Kupp to look for the closest coffee shop offering it.
Jackson is a design freelancer based in Berlin and uses Kupp for quite some time. His work needs him to commute quite often, and he has many appointments with his clients. He mainly uses voice through his wireless headset to order his coffee and only looks at the app for directions, when he has to pay and show his QR-Code.
Testing & PrototypingFor the first test phase we developed dialogues for the interaction with the VA's. We tested the conversations with the help of the “Wizard of Oz” method. For the VA, we used the voice output of a MacBook through a Python script that let us play predefined phrases via the input line.
