The Grind Cafe and Bakery was a self-initiated project that I wanted to use to practice UI design and product photography, as I felt I had less experience in these fields than I wanted. However, I needed a brand to work with, first, and I really wanted to push myself to create something noticeably different than I had in the past.

This was fairly easy to do if I put myself in the position of a high-end cafe. I wanted to create something with a quiet confidence for the brand, without feeling too high-class to even walk into. I started with the typefaces. When the type needed to be big, I wanted it to be softened, and when it needed to be smaller, I wanted it to be clear and confident. The combination of a soft serif face and stoic, legible sans. From here, I noticed that the lowercase "g" of the headline font (Latte) could be altered to create a pleasant, organic version, using imagery of steam rising from a hot cup of your preferred beverage.

Finally, we arrived at the color palette. Here, I really wanted to bring in more of a welcoming feeling, being concerned that the heavy use of uppercase letters in the typography would be a little too daunting. For this, I started with warm, earthy tones before shifting them more towards a pale rose. This shift helped avoid the trope of a brown-themed coffee shop, as well as shifting the focus away from the ingredients to make room for a focus on the prepared beverages themselves.

With the branding in place, I moved on to the mobile app, which I was far less confident in. However, I did have a handful of gripes with other mobile ordering apps that I was hoping to avoid with The Grind.

Primarily, I wanted to be sure that editing an order before you placed it was as simple as possible. Too often, I would have to go through the entire process. For this, I decided that an overlay to edit the item would keep them close to completing their checkout when they just wanted to change one thing about their item. If a user wants to change the item entirely, they can simply remove it from their cart to add another.

I also wanted to be sure that navigating through the menu offerings didn't feel claustrophobic. To phrase this another way, I wanted users to be able to easily swap between categories if they realized they wanted something different than they had originally ordered. With this in mind, I made sure that each beverage had the option to swap between multiple versions of it (for example, hot, iced, and frozen, if applicable) right on the item's page. Users would be able to change their beverage type right before they added it to their order.

Beyond these specific items, I really learned so much about making decisions and compromises throughout the design. Balancing simplification for the user experience without interfering with something straightforward was a constant challenge throughout the project. Decisions like what to include in the bottom navigation, how users would customize their items and more often required a couple of days to think on before deciding on a final direction.

With the branding in place, I moved on to the mobile app, which I was far less confident in. However, I did have a handful of gripes with other mobile ordering apps that I was hoping to avoid with The Grind.

Primarily, I wanted to be sure that editing an order before you placed it was as simple as possible. Too often, I would have to go through the entire process. For this, I decided that an overlay to edit the item would keep them close to completing their checkout when they just wanted to change one thing about their item. If a user wants to change the item entirely, they can simply remove it from their cart to add another.

I also wanted to be sure that navigating through the menu offerings didn't feel claustrophobic. To phrase this another way, I wanted users to be able to easily swap between categories if they realized they wanted something different than they had originally ordered. With this in mind, I made sure that each beverage had the option to swap between multiple versions of it (for example, hot, iced, and frozen, if applicable) right on the item's page. Users would be able to change their beverage type right before they added it to their order.

Beyond these specific items, I really learned so much about making decisions and compromises throughout the design. Balancing simplification for the user experience without interfering with something straightforward was a constant challenge throughout the project. Decisions like what to include in the bottom navigation, how users would customize their items and more often required a couple of days to think on before deciding on a final direction.