My First Trip to Boxcar Coffee!
Observing the user experience of a beloved Boulder coffee shop
I hear about the same three “best coffee shops in Boulder” at least once a week and since I don’t live in Boulder, I don’t think I take the suggestions to heart as seriously as I could. With this in mind, and the convenience of a group project meeting at one of these famous shops, I decided to observe the flow and design of Boxcar Coffee on Pearl. Trident and The Laughing Goat, I promise I’ll come visit y’all soon.
Boxcar Coffee is a shop sharing space with Cured, a specialty food and wine company. It has a really nice industrial-chic aesthetic with exposed brick and metal mixed with a beautiful glass and marble counter and display case. There’s also some gorgeous tile lining that counter giving a more earthy vibe to the place.
Observations
Being that it was my first time visiting, I had a difficult and embarrassing time figuring out where to order and where to pay. I arrived a little before 10:30am, which is when Cured would open, so there were extra airport-style stanchions (just learned the official word for this today, feels amazing) cordoning off walkways in an already cramped space. I accidentally “cut” the line by going to where I saw a register, completely missing a big “Orders” sign hanging from the ceiling and the tiny clipboard menus to my left. After picking up my mocha, I watched as the “regulars” knew exactly where to look, walk, order, and pay without any hesitation. I did feel slightly vindicated and less embarrassed when another first-time visitor had the same issue I had with knowing where to order, and was thankfully vocal about her confusion, helping round out my observation notes.
Once Cured opened for the day, one of the stanchions was removed opening up the space considerably. This became important later on in the day when Cured had a longer line than Boxcar during the lunch rush. Interestingly enough, where I feel Boxcar failed to provide clear signage that stood out, Cured did a pretty good job of directing eyes to important information. There are a few large signs towards the back of the space indicating where the wine shop was versus the food market and the food market area had large ceiling signs hovering over its wares.
When you walk through the front door, there is a glass and wood divider that has little stickers that point to the left for Boxcar and to the right for Cured, but I completely missed these indicators — maybe due to the glare coming from the sun? Not sure. Looking at a picture I took of the divider, I’m not sure how I missed these signals the first time around but hearing and seeing other customers’ confusion makes me feel less clueless.
Although the stanchioned (I’m really enjoying typing this word) walkways were very narrow at the start of the day because of the dual businesses, the partition around Boxcar was somewhat helpful as it did create a flow of traffic if you knew where to order first. It also appeared to “let” people out near the Cured display cases which I think has to be good for their business as well.
Alternatively, I witnessed a woman who was outside of the line strain against the elastic rope to look at the display case which seemed awkward and could possibly be better handled. While the partition did help corral folks in, it was was also cumbersome and a bit narrow in my opinion. Another gentleman wasn’t quite ready to order so he had to maneuver underneath the band to get out of line and then back in line towards the back. It didn’t look graceful or easy.
Analysis & Recommendations
One barista acknowledged without my mentioning it that “the ‘Orders’ sign isn’t as helpful as you might imagine.” I agree and that is one of the primary design changes I would suggest. Although the clipboard menus are quite small in my opinion, they are on a wall that is near the espresso machine and is visible from the front door. I think the “Orders” sign could be mounted to that left wall instead of hanging from the ceiling, directing eyes to the start of the line. For some reason, the sign hanging from the ceiling did not make it into my line of sight.
I would also recommend removing the divider/coffee station (see below) from immediately in front of the doors and placing sugar shakers and coffee lids on a bit of counter space adjacent to the register. This is where customers pick up their orders so I think it would be a natural location. This would completely open up the space visually when someone walks in and a quick look to the right and to the left would reveal which area is the food store and which area is the coffee shop. This may make the “Orders” sign on the ceiling more visible or draw eyes to the mounted sign and menus on the left wall.
I also spontaneously interviewed a fellow customer and while we both agreed Boxcar, despite some design challenges, has a really nice vibe and “makes you feel good,” it is seriously lacking in access to outlets, has too long of lines without control, and is often crowded. In spite of his critique, he said Boxcar is his favorite. This leads me to think that the space issues and confusion of where to order/pay isn’t as much of a hindrance to customers as it seems from an observer’s point of view. Plenty of people continued to stream in and out throughout the day, and personally, I would definitely visit again.
I’m just glad I know where to order this time.
