I wouldn't call myself a regular Starbucks customer, but I have made it tradition to stop into a Starbucks at least once whenever I go to NYC to get a Strawberry Açaí. After visiting different Starbucks throughout the city and in my home town, I noticed that every store was entirely unique, mainly distinguished by the store-wide murals created by local artists.
After doing some research, I learned that Starbucks has a very active art program with its own Instagram account showcasing the art they commission.
The goal of this re-design is to highlight the Starbucks Art Program and make it easier for Starbucks to communicate with their customers. The current version of the Starbucks app consists of cards promoting their different events, offers, and community involvement. However, the cards take up the full width of the screen, with no structure or organization. This makes it hard for consumers to organize the information, especially when discounts, promotions, podcasts, and featured menu items are all mixed in together.
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The strongest aesthetic quality of this design was to showcase local artists and give them a chance to be featured on the app.
This is mainly done through the loading screen, since it has the most digital real estate available. This also creates a brand image that shows how dedicated Starbucks is to their art program.
This image can rotate out as often as Starbucks pleases; once a week, once a month, or seasonally. Making an individual's art piece as the loading screen would also provide content for the Starbucks social media team, emphasizing the designer of the week, month, or season.
Upon loading in to the homescreen, the background image would be a second image by that artist, fully visible if you swipe down on the app's content (see additional images).
With the new UI, there are now much smaller cards grouped into categories.
Adding categories lets users easily find what they are looking for - like bonus star deals - while also seeing Starbucks's community involvement, such as their Spotify playlist and podcast, which were previously hidden at the bottom of the app. These cards are clickable, and bring the user to either more information or the call to action.
These changes encourage user engagement, by making the content easily accessible and digestible. Now, we have placed community engagement at the top so users will see a preview of what Starbucks would like to highlight. Eliminating the missed opportunity of customers not scrolling down far enough.
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Home Screen:
This is what the home screen looks like if the user swipes down on the app content, a showcase of the artist's work. The artist will have a dedicated card in the community section to bring users to their information.
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Card Details:
When clicking on a card, an enlarged version will appear with more information and the call to action. More straightforward cards such as the podcast or Spotify playlist will link directly to their destinations.
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