Project: Coffee Maschine (Case study)
Year: 2016
Description: The goal of this case study was to proof my design skills as a part of an application. I created a design of an interface for a new type of shared coffee machine that is co-owned and used by multiple people.
Responsibilities: Description of the design process, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Presenation

Situation

In 2016 I applied for a job at a very well known design company based in Munich with offices all over the world. To prove my design skills I needed to fulfill this design task with 2-3 days, which I did. Afterwards I was invited into the Munich office and did a very successful presentation, which resulted in a job offer.

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Task

The goal was to design the interface for a new type of shared coffee machine that is co-owned and used by multiple people. It’s for a brand that is new in the business of making coffee machines. They’re particularly proud of their technical solutions and that they’re seen by customers to be innovative.

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Action

The process

The goal of this task was to showcase how I would approach this project and what steps I would go through. A design process contains several phase but I focussed only on the research and ideation part of the design process.

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Research

The research phase is the most important part of the design process, because the insights from the client, customers and context form the foundation for everything that follows.

To gain these insights, there are different methods such as interviews, surveys and competitor research. At the time, I was working at Wooga, where there was a coffee machine in the kitchen. I conducted some research there to get a sense of the entire process of getting a coffee and to better understand the situation in the kitchen itself.

I also did some interviews with colleagues from Wooga to get an idea what´s important for them and what problems they are faced with.

Besides the interviews I also observed the way users get their coffee from a coffee machine. The biggest pain point was, that users had to change the coffee settings very often, because the machine was also used by other colleagues.

Ideation

I usually start the design process with simple sketches to quickly visualize ideas.

Interaction design

In the next phase I created simple wireframes to showcase the user flow of my concept.

Switching between categories and view types

Customizing a coffee type

Selecting a coffee type

Next Steps

The next steps are to discuss the ideas with the client, to test the ideas with prototypes and to iterate based on the feedback from the tests.

Visual design

Before starting with the visual design, we need to ask ourselves, who we design for. We need to consider the client/brand, the customers and the context.

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The result

The coffee preparation interface features a clean, intuitive design with minimalist elements, clear hierarchy  and a playful yet professional tone. Consistent layouts, typography and navigation ensure a smooth user journey. Users can browse coffee options, customize drinks with visual cup compositions and track brewing progress via animated indicators. A dark theme with high-contrast accents enhances visibility, while realistic coffee visuals add charm. The experience is accessible for all user groups, with clear actions, smooth transitions and user-friendly controls.