Connect app

The initiative and my role.

Nespresso had a legacy app on the App Store with around 200k users, they also have around 3.5 million coffee machines in the public domain, 1.8 million of which are potentially connectable via the app. Nespresso’s analytic data reported that less than 50% of customers successfully paired their machine using the mobile app although they didn’t know why. Not only did this lead to user frustration but Nesprsso knew they were potentially missing out on huge amounts of customer usage data. They also had issues with the app crashing due to unknown connection issues. This was costly for the business as the same app was used for the shopping experience. App crashes made for a substandard user experience and capsule sales, Nespresso’s biggest revenue source were affected. I was brought in to lead the design of a brand new app that aims to solve these existing customer pain points, increase connectivity rates with Nespresso machines whilst building and integrating the new Nespresso design system framework.

Nespresso had plenty of research conducted by the marketing team in various markets that related to customers shopping experiences online and via the boutique stores but none of it seemed to address the fundamental issues faced by the app. I made an assessment of the app and using data sources like analytics, app store reviews, social media comments and moderated usability studies. I was able to define the high-level customer problems, for example, ‘The value proposition to connect isn’t clear for new customers.’ ‘The onboarding flow to get a machine connected is poor with too 
many steps and potential drop-off points.’ ‘The navigation and use of custom UI is making entry points less discoverable.’

I used these problem statements to give direction to a new set of low-fidelity mockups collaboratively created with the team in Figjam. I also identified some project constraints for example there was no CMS for content, Nespresso were changing the engineering team at the start of the project and there was limited design capability given the requirement was to develop apps for both iOS and Android platforms.

My strategy was simple. Fix the basics. Address user problems. Create a scalable architecture for the app. Improve workflow with the new team.

First there were many examples of unconventional or custom UI in the app so a lot of work was done to align the flows to common interaction patterns on each platform. Not only are these more patterns already familiar to users and therefore easier to use, but it's way easier to use Google’s code (for example) and apply styling than it is to build a component from scratch. Next, flows were reworked using the problem statements we created. Where we had new flows prototypes were created in Figma and we conducted moderated user testing to validate our assumptions. I completely redesigned the app navigation to align with platform patterns and allow greater scalability. Now, new features or products can be easily incorporated in the app without having to rework the architecture every time.

Previously the Figma files were incomplete, out of date and misaligned to the production app. I completely rebuilt the Figma project using linear flows that represent every scenario defined in the use cases with a particular focus on unhappy paths as these were actually more likely given users issues with connectivity for example. Everything was aligned to the design system framework and layers of technical documentation were added to the file for developers so they could better understand machine behaviours, back-end events and transitions. Finally strict governance was applied so that we could ensure the design process had been followed before marking work as ‘Ready for dev’.

What did we learn?

For flows that had just had UI or design system updates testing was done internally using an app in our staging environment. Where we had new UX or flows we conducted moderated interviews using usertesting.com. Here we learned that the nomenclature wasn’t always understood in all markets so needed to be more market specific and also that users wanted ‘expert advice’ from Nespresso rather than being given lots of options. We also found that although we had improved the pairing process based on standards users were still having trouble connecting to machines. During tests we discovered that the firmware controlling the BLE module was actually limiting the machine to device range and was causing the pairing process to fail. The machine hardware team is still working closely with the app team to investigate these connectivity issues.

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Great Design Collaboration

The design team that I joined was given full autonomy over the native app products which meant we could move fast and utilise our extensive combined experience.

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No shared Ways of working

There wasn’t a particularly good understanding of design thinking methodologies within the team so my assumptions that design work was understood by everyone was sometimes wrong.

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High quality design system

Adopting and contributing to the Nespresso design system meant that the team was fully aligned, speeding up development, ensuring consistency and brand identity.

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Undefined product strategy

Nespresso had very little research in this space and with no service blueprint or product strategy it was challenging to define genuinely meaningful experiences in the time given.

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Loved by stakeholders

Not only was the overhauled app design easily understood by users in testing but the new app received some great feedback from the senior management team at Nespresso.

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Misaligned development team

Nespresso changed vendor as the project began so we were working with developers from an external agency with no prior product knowledge which slowed progress.

The app was completely rebuilt from the ground up and now provides a robust scalable design for iterative enhancements.

Component based. The app uses foundation and experience components that align to the Nespresso design system framework.

Both iOS & Android apps were shipped four times faster than the previous version of the app with the improved workflow.