We understand that life's simplest pleasures can bring immense joy!
The Simple Life Coffee represents my venture into the world of digital coffee business. I conceived this business idea in 2021, and since then, it has evolved to encompass various aspects such as brand creation, product development, marketing, competitive analysis, web design, and overall business management. Every element you encounter in this business, from the distinctive branding to product development, has been crafted by me, starting from scratch. Additionally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to my family for their substantial support in terms of logistics and supply chain management. My business is now fully operational, and we are shipping coffee nationwide.
The Simple Life Coffee
About us
Our unique Colombian coffee beans come from our family farm in Mundo Nuevo (New World) settlement, located outside the town of Pereira at 5000 feet above sea level on the western slopes of the Andes. Here, we harvest and sundry by hand the gentle Castillo variety of coffee. Our Artisanal processing makes for a cup profile of excellent uniformity and an aroma full of chocolate notes.
Market/Opportunity
After conducting research, I discovered that the coffee industry is currently experiencing what is referred to as the "Third Wave of Coffee". The Third Wave of Coffee is different It is characterized by a focus on high-quality, artisanal coffee, which is often sourced from small-scale farmers and produced using eco-friendly methods. Consumers of Third Wave coffee are more interested in knowing the origin of their coffee, how it was produced, and when it was roasted.
Who we are
Quality: Our signature coffee has an 86% rating by the Colombian Coffee Association. We also have partnerships with local coffee farms across the Andean Region.
Family: Our coffee is harvested by hand in our coffee farm in Mundo Nuevo Colombia, Family values and tradition.
Sustainable Production: We strive to be committed to sustainable development, our coffee production not only respects the environment but adheres to universal human rights, and we make sure our producers are well compensated and appreciated!
Colombia: All of our coffee products are harvested and imported from Colombia, We not only grow and distribute our family coffee, but we are committed to helping the Colombian Coffee Industry overall.
Branding
Mission: At Simple Life Coffee, our mission is to accompany you through the daily grind of urban life while cultivating creativity, fostering inclusivity, and inspiring entrepreneurship.
Goal: “We believe that simplicity should never compromise quality. We understand that life's simplest pleasures can bring immense joy, and we strive to elevate those moments with our commitment to high standards. From the meticulously selected coffee beans to the precise roasting process, every step is crafted with utmost care to ensure that your coffee experience is nothing short of exceptional. We believe that even the simplest cup of coffee deserves to be extraordinary. Welcome to a world where simplicity meets perfection.”
Sustainable production
Rooted in a small-scale coffee farm, we nurture a vision that transcends borders. Our international goals drive us to cultivate exceptional coffee with a global impact. From the meticulous care of our small-scale plantation, we aim to bring the rich flavors of our coffee to enthusiasts worldwide. Join us on this journey where the essence of our humble farm resonates globally, fostering a shared love for exceptional coffee where simplicity meets perfection.
The Simple Life Coffee, Sustainable production video
Website Design Goals
Website Creation
The Simple Life Coffee is a 100% online business. We want to be able to offer all of our products and services within our e-commerce site. Due to business purposes, I decided to create my website using Shopify, this platform allows me to integrate social media, shipping labels, google ads, SEO, and analytics, all within one place. Shopify gives you a lot of tools all accessed within one dashboard. Even though Shopify helps with many digital aspects of business management, it sacrifices a lot of creative freedom with its static website templates. It has been a challenge to give the feel of my brand to my Shopify store due to the template constraints. I made some tweaks to the HTML & and CSS code in some sections and I also played around with different features to be able to give the website the elegant and aesthetically minimal design that I am aiming for.
Be able to provide all of our products and services on our website.
Communicate our message and mission through design and interactive content.
Create a sense of community, “The Simple Life Coffee, is not only and brand is a lifestyle”.
Design Challenges
Limited creative freedom due to template constraints.
Be able to implement all desired features, this includes products and services.
Describe our aggregated value through design and content.
Provide the user/customer with an explanation of who we are and what we stand for.
Finding ways of making the website more engaging, by adding relatable content.
Maintain cohesive and minimalistic design throughout all pages.
Goals
Usability Testing
Make it stand out.
The general goal of this usability test is to analyze The Simple Life Coffee’s website performance in terms of navigation, features, content, and conversions. The feedback provided by the users will be used to improve the overall website experience.
Methods
Moderated usability test. The test will take place in public locations, in this case, we opted for coffee shops and community areas, including clubhouses.
IRB Approval: Obtaining IRB approval involved a detailed process of presenting the procedures and methods of the study. It was crucial to explain how participants would interact with the research, particularly the website. This included providing clear descriptions of participants' activities and visually demonstrating what they would encounter. Ensuring participants' safety, privacy, and informed consent were paramount. To meet these requirements, I prepared detailed consent forms and completed a certification in Human Research Protection and Ethics. The approval process took approximately four weeks, during which several iterations were made to ensure full compliance with IRB standards.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
How are we measuring progress toward our goals?
Time on task
User error rates
Drop-off rates
Conversion Rates
Participant Characteristics
Ideally, our participants are people who appreciate high-quality coffee, care about sustainability and how the coffee is produced, and if production adheres to human rights. The user persona describes our “ideal customer” based on our market research and the niche market that we are representing. Obviously due to the nature of these usability tests where we are not previously selecting “ideal candidates,” we are trying to test if the overall website experience is accessible to all. Through the usability test 3 out of 5 participants fortunately were closely related to our user persona.
User Persona
Script:
Introduction: Welcome to the user testing session of The Simple Life Coffee. My name is Nicolas, I am the founder and marketing director of The Simple Life Coffee. I will be leading this session, observing and taking notes throughout the process.
-As a quick introduction, The Simple Life Coffee is my digital coffee business venture, initiated in 2021. Since then, it has grown to include brand creation, product development, marketing, competitive analysis, web design, and overall business management. Every aspect of the business, from the unique branding to product development, has been created by me from the ground up. I am deeply grateful to my family for their significant support in logistics and supply chain management. Now fully operational, we are shipping coffee nationwide. The general goal of this usability test is to analyze The Simple Life Coffee’s website performance in terms of navigation, features, content, and conversions. The feedback provided by the users will be used to improve the overall website experience.
-Please know that there are no right or wrong answers to any of our questions, we just would like to see you interact with the product and provide your honest feedback. Before we begin, I would like to ask you if you would give your consent for this session to be recorded. Is that alright with you? (Sign Consent Form)
-To begin the testing, I will give you several tasks to complete as you use the website. We won’t be providing very detailed instructions at first, as we would like to gain an understanding of how intuitive each process is. Please feel free to think out loud, ask any questions you may have throughout the process, and let me know if you encounter any challenges at any point.
-After you’re done completing the tasks within the app, we will close out with a few questions to get some insight from you. This is when you will have the opportunity to provide any feedback or recommendations you may have.
Prompts (Products)
Could you navigate from the home page to “shop”
Please select “Our Coffee” category and choose any product of your liking.
Once product is selected, choose between different bag/shirt sized (if available).
Add product to cart and include required information.
Go to checkout
Choose a different product and repeat the same process.
Feedback Follow up
Did you encounter any challenges or difficulties navigating through the website?
Is there anything that confused you at any point throughout the process?
What do you think about the products?
Do you have any questions, recommendations, or suggestions about anything you saw?
Prompts (Navigation)
Please explore the homepage thoroughly.
Go to the “About Us” page, and watch the “Sustainable Process Video.
Find “Blogs” within the “About Us” page.
Explore our different services by navigating to “Our Services” page.
Explore the remaining tabs you haven’t checked.
Feedback Follow up
Did you encounter any challenges or difficulties navigating through the website?
Is there anything that confused you at any point throughout the process?
What do you think about the branding?
What do you think The Simple Life Coffee’s goals are?
Do you have any questions, recommendations, or suggestions about anything you saw?
Location
All usability tests will be in person using a computer and screen recorder
Participants
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Anna
Mechanical Engineer 24 years old
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Lori
Industrial Engineer 26 years old
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Helen
Teacher 24 years old
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Benjamin
Media specialist 32 years old
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Carlos
MBA Student 27 years old
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The real identity of participants is kept in private for privacy concerns, Stock Images
Anna (Participant#1):
Usability test note-taking spreadsheet (Products)
Time of completion 5:32 min
“I like the website and the overall branding, one thing that I would add is more information about the founder so the people know who they are supporting ”
Iterations made: Added a “Founder” section within the “About us” page.
Lori (Participant#2)
Usability test note-taking spreadsheet (Products)
Usability test note-taking spreadsheet (Navigation)
Iterations made:
Added Colombian Map in the product product packaging.
Created an alternative logo for the brand.
Currently working in adding either a map geolocation or picture on the “About Us” page.
Time of completion 5:23 min
“I really like the website, I like how minimalistic and simple it looks. The pictures are cool the the product looks sophisticated, you should have some Colombian flag or map somewhere in the website and branding, so people know the exact location of where the coffee is coming from”
Time of completion 6:46 min
Helen (Participant#3)
“Very cool logo and branding, loved the video as well, I saw you talk about supplying coffee to businesses, there is not a lot of information about it ”
Iterations made: Already started creating a wholesale dedicated page.
Iterations made: Already started creating a wholesale dedicated page.
Benjamin (Participant#4)
Prompt 2 (Navigation): Did you realize that after the coffee video, it automatically plays a different video?”
Iterations made: made sure there is no auto play after the video is done.
“Cool I like the whole family concept, and the product itself looks premium”
Carlos (Participant#5)
Prompt 5 (Navigation): “Some of the images are taking a while to load.”
Iterations made: Reduce image file size to ensure load times are improved.
“Love the minimalistic approach, seems sophisticated and elegant, cool to see you and your family there ”
Insights (Product Prompts)
Prompt 1: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 2: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 3: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 4: 4 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 5: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
General Feedback
Insights (Navigation Prompts)
Prompt 1: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 2: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 3: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 4: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
Prompt 5: 5 out 5 participants completed the task with ease.
All participants were impressed by the branding and overall design of the website. They clearly understood the product and its aggregated value, providing positive feedback and impressions. They appreciated the concept of a family business that upholds universal human rights and sustainable production practices. Additionally, they felt that the minimalistic approach was well-suited to both the website and the product.
Website state November 2023 (Before iterations)
Compare the previous state of the website before doing our second round of iterations , speed up the video to x1.5
Live website after iterations
Check our live official website, we are currently active and shipping coffee nationwide!
If you want to learn more about our overall business and web design process please check our project development file.
Conclusion
This project required a diverse set of skills, including branding, market research, web design, and supply chain management, with a primary focus on user research. Adhering to guidelines, particularly the IRB requirements, was a critical part of this process. It was my first experience with such stringent protocols for usability testing, which initially felt tedious. However, I recognize that in the professional world, companies and products may require even more rigorous standards, so this experience was invaluable in preparing me for future challenges.
Additionally, I learned the importance of avoiding implicit biases, ensuring that I did not pre-judge participants based on their background or technical expertise. This approach allowed me to gather valuable insights from a diverse group of participants. Moving forward, I am eager to conduct usability tests with individuals who have marketing and e-commerce expertise to further enhance my research skills and understanding.
Learn more about my business
