DEEP DIVE Keurig | Coffee house experience

FROM MARKET GAP TO EVERYDAY ESSENTIAL

THE CHALLENGE

Bringing Café-Style coffee home—Conveniently

Keurig aimed to unlock new growth by tapping into rising demand for café-quality drinks at home. While consumers craved the flavor and variety of specialty coffee, they also expected speed and simplicity—creating a clear opportunity to reimagine convenience in the single-serve experience.

DEFINING PRODUCT DIRECTION

Co-created with consumers in 5 North American markets (US/Canada) to uncover barriers to making milk-based drinks at home—shaping early product direction and driving a test-and-learn approach through iterative prototyping and validation.

Early testing of coffee, milk, and flavor delivery—using speculative stimuli, 3D prototypes, and hands-on prep with espresso machines—surfaced user challenges and laid the foundation for K-Café

Group of five people in a kitchen, two women and three men, preparing drinks and engaging in tasks.

Users care more about how much flavor they add than where it comes from. With no strong preference for integration, the team prioritized simplifying the system by focusing on milk frothing only

Collection of coffee and coffee-related items, including coffee capsules, coffee flavoring pods, different varieties of coffee extracts, coffee beans, a coffee brewing machine, and coffee cups being prepared.

With 80% of research complete, product platform, timeline, and MVP milestones for K-Café were finalized

Whiteboard with multiple pink, blue, and orange sticky notes and handwritten notes for a project, alongside a hexagonal diagram of a coffee brewing process titled 'Co-creation Brewer,' with labeled sections for different coffee types and a small photograph of a person operating a coffee machine.

BUILDING THE PRODUCT ARCHITECTURE

Turned lifestyle and appliance trends into early product architecture and interaction flows—modernizing Keurig’s single-serve experience with barista-style drinks, while testing the location and usability of key touchpoints to preserve simplicity and ease of use.

User testing revealed the need for clarity and reassurance—building confidence at every step while maintaining the convenience loyal users expect.

Collection of interior design trend overview pages featuring sections on trend summary, home styles, kitchen trends, appliances, and home styles, with images of modern kitchens, appliances, and decor elements.

Comparison of different types of coffee makers: Island, Cove, and Platform, shown in grayscale.

True differentiation emerged from understanding how users interact with the frother—where it lives, how it works, and when it’s wanted

UI concepts were tested and refined in real time to improve clarity for preparing both single brews and milk-based drinks

Comparison of different control panel designs for coffee machines, from top to bottom: Original, REV 1, and REV 2, showing various buttons, dials, and labels for brewing options.

Comparison of a rotary phone with a circular dial and a modern touchscreen phone with buttons, showing the dial being operated by a hand.

Focus groups with 30 users validated a button-based, T-shaped layout as the most compact and visually clean solution for users

Top: Close-up of three white coffee or hot water dispensers on a light-colored table. Bottom: Black-and-white photo of a conference room with five women, some blurred, behind a glass window, and others standing or sitting, one woman wearing glasses and holding notes.

GIVING FORM TO A NEW CATEGORY

With a tested product architecture in place, bold forms were explored to help Keurig stand out and claim leadership in a new category.

Design sketches of coffee machines, showing different angles and styles, including some with digital displays and various features, arranged in rows with annotations.

By exploring multiple frother integrations, the team arrived at solutions that balance intuitive interaction with a strong, differentiated visual statement

On-site review aligned stakeholders around three final design directions, accelerating buy-in and next-step decisions

Woman in red sweater standing near a display of various gadgets and accessories on a table and wall in an office or retail setting.

Different coffee brewing devices including a hand holding a blue machine, a gray coffee maker with a black mug and a small container, and an overhead view of gray mugs with removable lids.

Comparison of three different models of K-CAFÉ coffee machines, K-Café Nook, Inline A, and Inline B, each with multiple color options and close-up shots of the control panels.

ID down-select centered on cylindrical vs. rounded-cuboid tanks to find the best balance of form and functional integration

The half-cylindrical tank proved more harmonious with the brewer architecture, elevating the milk portfolio expression

Comparison of two coffee makers, with one labeled 'Cylindrical CWT' on the left and the other 'Rectangular CWT' on the right, separated by a 'vs' in the center.

Ergonomic testing favored the bucket-style handle for easier lifting and integration—outperforming the front-facing handle, which requires extra effort to stay level

Comparison of two water dispenser models: top row shows a model with a bucket handle, bottom row shows a model with a front-facing handle. Each row includes images of the dispenser's handle type, filling a water container, and cleaning or replacing parts.

3D-printed milk carafe designs, inspired by the classic milk pan, validated ergonomic ease and nostalgic appeal—strengthening Keurig’s position in the milk-based coffee category

Various styles of milk frothing pitchers and milk jugs, arranged on a surface for coffee preparation.

NAILING THE DETAILS WITH WORKS-LIKE PROTOTYPES

Moving quickly into design detailing, frequent testing with users and executive stakeholders was essential to refine UI flow, physical touchpoints, and frother integration—nailing an interaction that felt simple, error-free, and delightful.

UI & UX Prototyping and testing

The engineering team built works-like prototypes with swappable UI plaques, enabling hands-on “latte-testing” of two interface concepts—brewing real coffee and frothing milk using a modified K80 and simulated frother.

Images of various stages of repairing or assembling a Keurig coffee maker, including disconnected parts, remote controls, and the coffee machine itself.

This enabled real-world testing of knob vs. button interfaces, giving Keurig stakeholders firsthand experience to evaluate and align on early design directions

Group of six professionals in an office observing a scientific or technical device on a table, with labels indicating roles such as CTO, VP, CFO, SVP, and team.

Testing two fundamentally different UI paradigms—Creator (dial) vs. Customer (guided lights)—reveals the more intuitive option, guiding our primary interface choice

Comparison of UI interfaces for a coffee brewing app on two tablets, showing different control options for creator and customer modes.

The best elements of both were selected for further development—prioritizing a direct, top-down beverage selection path, supported by hierarchical prompting lights and a button-based implementation over a dial

Comparison of four coffee machine UI designs showing different features: educational sticker overlay, guided UI with prompts, non-guided UI, and non-guided UI with confirmation LED indicators.

Refined the UI to understand the balance between prompting and direct control, revealing that users value flexible guidance, clear confirmation, and a top-down flow—enabling confident use within seconds, & on the first try

Comparison of two coffee machine control panels: on the left, a guided UI with LED indicators for Latte & Cappuccino modes, showing 2+ LED lights. On the right, an unguided UI with printed labels, showing fewer components and removing guided flow indicators.

User testing confirmed strong preference for a flexible Guided UI that allows advanced users to skip drink type and go straight to selecting shot or ounces—driving leadership alignment to finalize and spec it as K-Café’s primary interface, delivering on Keurig’s promise of simple milk-based brewing

Two people seated at a wooden conference table, engaged in discussion with documents, a laptop, and a tablet, in an office setting.

Navigating cost versus usability trade-offs

User testing revealed that removing the bucket handle—an essential touchpoint—offered negligible cost savings but significantly compromised usability, reinforcing the decision to keep it.

Comparison chart of different Keurig water tanks, showing two-piece tank with bucket handle and one-piece tank with finger grooves, including images of each design and user demonstration.

Colors, Materials & Finishes (CMF) Opportunities

Launched an all-silver special edition and an all-charcoal CMF to offer a familiar yet elevated entry into milk-based coffee making

Person in a white outfit walking in a minimalist kitchen with a white countertop, a modern kitchen faucet, a Keurig coffee machine, a white mug, and open shelves with stacked white plates and bowls.

Four Keurig coffee makers in different colors, each with a matching mug, displayed on kitchen counters with labeled background colors: Pearl, Teal Time, Storm Cloud, and Charcoal.

Keurig coffee maker concept designed to deliver a coffeehouse-style experience at home.

SOLVING CRITICAL ISSUES ALONGSIDE MANUFACTURERS

Four days of on-site collaboration with contract manufacturers’ engineering team in Shenzhen led to major breakthroughs in assembly, molding, and detail design—accelerating design-for-manufacturing while preserving user-focused industrial design.

Cross-functional design and engineering team collaborating on product development directly with client's contract manufacturer and tool makers.

Chose increased frother height to enable future upgrades without retooling (using existing PCB and internals, e.g., coils)—minimizing long-term costs and unlocking design flexibility

Keurig design iteration optimizing frother height for improved modularity avoiding future tool changes.

Concept iterations exploring compact product form factors and dimensional trade-offs with increased frother height. Evaluating aesthetic impact to overal brewer design.

Early concept iterations evaluating form factor and system footprint with 3D printed mockups.

Lighting effects, button feel, and travel were benchmarked against reference products. Light bleed was fine-tuned by adjusting surface texturing, paint, and increasing UI gasket thickness for improved diffusion

UI, button, and internal component design for reliable user interaction, referencing standout products to match tactile feel.

Developed a detailed use case framework that shaped brewer and frother interaction logic—used as a living blueprint for programming, UI behavior, and exception handling

Service blueprint mapping coffee brewing workflows and user touchpoints.

The cold water tank lid includes a rear handle that makes removal easy when refilling at the sink, greatly improving the water tank refill experience

Improved ergonomics for cold water tank with removable water filter and dual-access lid for easier maintenance.

In-use testing of cup clearance and drip tray ergonomics

Prioritized a single front parting line to manage texture transitions—creating subtle visual contrast without added color complexity or visual busyness

Design exploration of parting lines, surface finishes, and color strategies for manufacturability

Final Keurig coffee maker delivering a coffeehouse-style experience at home

Red Dot Design Award for Keurig K-Cafe brewer: 'red dot winner 2020'

Statement by the Jury

K-Café is characterised by an elegant appearance. It convinces functionally with its ability to prepare versatile coffee specialities.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

“The original pod coffee company has created an ace latte and cappuccino machine… Clean, minimalist design. K-Cup compatible. Strong and Shot options make a decent espresso-like drink. Has an incredibly easy-to-use, easy-to-clean automatic frother. Mug-friendly. Large water reservoir.”

-John D.

WIRED magazin proof of evaluation and product recommendation for Keurig K-Cafe.

Customer ratings section showing a star icon, the title 'Customer Ratings' in bold, and a review for Keurig K-Café Essentials Single Serve Coffee Maker, rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by over 24,000 customers on Amazon.

In 2017, I led industrial design and spearheaded UI/UX for a new-market product, aligning design, engineering, and consumer insights to launch a new-to-category solution in 6 months—balancing design intent, manufacturability, and user needs.