Mar - Jul, 2019
During the 'Usability Testing and User Experience Assessment in Design (UXAD)' course, we partnered with Philips to optimize the Saeco Xelsis coffee machine experience. This project involved exploring and evaluating numerous design concepts to find a path to an improved user experience.
Lead of interaction design and prototype (group of 5)
Touchscreen & IoT
Inspired Philips' Saeco team for future improvements
The Philips Saeco Xelsis is a fully automatic espresso machine that provides a broad selection of coffee options. Key interactions occur through the control panel, which features an LCD display and physical buttons.
Through empirical research involving our team and invited testers, we analyzed all identified issues and highlighted three problems with potential for improvement through a redesign.
Brewing coffee requires navigating through several mandatory steps. Despite offering 4 to 5 customization options, users are obliged to complete 6 to 7 steps to brew their coffee with all desired customizations.
The machine features a profile function designed to streamline coffee preparation to just 3 steps. However, because this function is isolated from the main customization process, it confuses users. As a result, they are reluctant to utilize the profile feature.
Maintenance prompts, such as adding water, can occur unexpectedly, even after the machine has begun grinding the beans. This disrupts the user experience and contradicts their expectations for coffee preparation.
The design goal is to enhance user experience by simplifying the coffee customization process and making maintenance tasks more manageable.
Aim to decrease the number of steps in the customization process and enhance the connection with the profile feature.
Offer comprehensive maintenance information upfront to prevent disruptions during coffee brewing.
With our design objective as a guide, we investigated three design paths to address these challenges and discover elements that enhance the overall product experience.
Features a minimalist touchscreen for brewing, with extra functions like profile setup accessible via a mobile app, ensuring a fast and simple coffee-making process.
BIntegrates all features into a full touchscreen, showing drink options, customization, and maintenance status, for a fully informed and streamlined coffee-making experience.
Combines a tactile rotary knob for core functions with two displays: one on the knob for basic info and another for detailed insights, enhancing user interaction.
Following the exploration of three concepts and peer testing, we merged key features from each into a new concept. This unified design combines a full-color touchscreen with embedded LEDs in maintenance parts, addressing most of our design objectives.
Coffee ID offers swift access to drink profiles on a unified screen, with easy-to-navigate, linked profile and customization options. Designed for convenience, it simplifies choosing and customizing drinks, ideal for users seeking quick, personalized coffee experiences. See video ↗️
The maintenance forecast, with its indicator bar and info page, simplifies tasks like refilling and emptying. It activates when only 3 cups of coffee (one bar represents the maximum ingredients needed to make one Americano) can be made, streamlining upkeep and enhancing user control. See video ↗️
For this concept, we created a simulated environment to assess the design with an interactive prototype. Our test plan aimed to uncover user experience issues in the redesign, including unexpected problems, to refine the final design.
• Assess if users can more easily and fluidly make their customized coffee.
• Evaluate whether ‘maintenance forecast’ enhances the pleasantness of maintenance notifications.
• Determine the effectiveness of lighting icons in assisting users during maintenance.
• Assess user comprehension of the machine's information, icons, and interactions.
• Evaluate whether the machine's aesthetic style aligns with its high-end market positioning.
The evaluation yielded positive feedback, with test participants favoring the usability and new features of the concept. However, several areas were highlighted for further refinement, as detailed below.
This project involved multiple cycles of design, testing, and refinement. Through this process, I gained significant insights into planning and conducting user experience evaluations and integrating varied feedback into design concepts.
Reflecting on the journey and the design concept, I believe there's room to further explore Machine Learning and innovative interaction methods. For example, Machine Learning could make 'maintenance prediction' more intuitive for users. Additionally, employing NFC technology on mobile phones to establish a Coffee ID, enabling users to simply tap their phone on the machine to brew their coffee, presents an exciting avenue for enhancing the user experience.