How might we boost customer retention and improve UX in a cafe?
By establishing a scalable feedback loop through surveys to reduce in-cafe user frustration.
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Were you given enough information about:
(select all that apply)
Estimated wait time
Peak times (longer wait)
Help from staff when needed
Confirmation that my needs (e.g., allergy) were taken care of
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Drink & food prep area
Dine-in area (if used)
Bathroom (if used)
Register area
Area
Rating
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Project Type
Personal project and adopted
Tools
Figma, FigJam
My Role
Conducted self-initiated user research at a San Mateo cafe, interviewing customers, baristas, and the manager to uncover pain points and drive actionable improvements, including a redesigned survey to enhance the UX.
Duration
4 months
Impact
Delivered insights to the UX team via a slide deck, which were integrated into the UX launch in Summer 2025.
Problems
While long coffee wait times might appear to be operational issues, research into customer and barista experiences revealed underlying UX challenges affecting the overall journey.
WHY
Orders from third-party channels (e.g., DoorDash) are not accounted for and disrupt the original pickup schedule.
WHY
There’s no communication channel when order changes occur.
WHY
The online survey, sent after orders, only asks about food satisfaction, not service or overall experience.
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What is Blue Bottle Coffee?
Blue Bottle Coffee offers more than coffee. It is a curated aesthetic and ritualized experience where UX shapes every interaction.
What are the methodologies?
Interviews with customers, baristas and manager
Tracking the gap between estimated and actual pick-up times using order tickets
Observing customer behaviors that signal frustration while waiting
Why this location in San Mateo?
Working as a barista here during grad school, I witnessed firsthand the weekend chaos and long waits, which inspired me to explore more efficient ways to understand and improve the customer journey.
Deliverable
I redesigned the survey along with the actionable findings, understanding the technical constraints of implement some of my advice and chose the MVP to support my findings. I found the “love language” to speak with PMs in this case is to showing mockups instead of a written proposals,
before
after
3
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Were you given enough information about:
(select all that apply)
Estimated wait time
Peak times (longer wait)
Help from staff when needed
Confirmation that my needs (e.g., allergy) were taken care of
None of the above
1
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UI Changes Made to Improve Survey Usability
Bringing Personal Project into the Real World
The insights and redesigned survey were delivered to Blue Bottle’s UX team as a pitch deck. This work directly informed the post-purchase customer survey redesign, which launched in Q3 2025.
Official new design
The new survey officially pivoted the focus from food innovation to factors influencing the in-café user experience.
Deliverable:
UX pitch deck
What Did I Learn: Speak the Same “Business Language” with corporate
My deliverable went through several iterations.
Beginning as a personal project, it did not initially have a clear path to real-world impact. I shared my early findings with Blue Bottle’s program manager to gather feedback, which surfaced a critical gap in my approach. I was overly focused on user sentiment without clearly tying insights to business impact.
To effectively advocate for design decisions and align with stakeholders, I needed to speak the same language by connecting UX insights to measurable business outcomes. Describing user frustration or satisfaction alone was not sufficient.
In response, I reframed my findings and redesigned the post-purchase survey as a key deliverable, positioning it as a tool to generate actionable insights that support both customer experience and business goals.
User Experience
3
And we can
1
Users want to
2
so that they can
get the drinks on time if they ordered ahead
manage their time more effectively
better manage the workflow efficiency and have a smoother operation
have a clear communication with the store when ordering
know how long the wait will be and feel assured
build a stronger brand trust and leading to a higher retention rate
drink and eat in a clean and comfortable cafe
feel relaxing when they come to the cafe
increase repeat visits and loyalty
their orders (coffee or food) to taste good,
feel satisfied and that their money was well spent
leverage this to support premium pricing
Business Outcomes
Actionable Insights
Combining insights from the research phase, I identified three actionable recommendations to improve the user experience at scale.
Empower users and close the loop through a user-centered survey
I chose the redesigned survey as the MVP because it’s a low-cost, high-impact way to gather scalable insights beyond food satisfaction and improve key touch points across locations
Combine estimated pickup time of the app and third-party channel to set better expectation
Support open communication by enabling alerts for out-of-stock items