Café Juliet

Coding a website from scratch using HTML & CSS
Website mockup of Café Juliet displayed on two smartphones and a laptop, showing About Us page, customer favorites menu, and a food dish with pancakes and berries.

Project Overview

Café Juliet is a Muslim-owned local café in Staten Island, New York that opened in late 2023. As the café became more popular, the business lacked a dedicated website to showcase its brand, menu, and atmosphere online.

To support their growing customer base, I designed and coded a responsive website from scratch highlighting Café Juliet's identity while providing customers with an accessible way to explore the menu and learn more about the business.

Role

Solo UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher

Tasks

UX Research, Responsive Design, Information Architecture

Tools

HTML, CSS, Figma, Adobe Illustrator

Time

February 2024  -  May 2024 (3 months)

Why does Café Juliet need a website?

Café Juliet was open for a few months and started gaining more customers, so they would like to build a website that revolves around their existing brand while addressing their customers’ needs.

How did we want to address this?

Create a responsive website that allows customers to easily access Café Juliet’s menu and learn more about the café’s atmosphere.

What did I do to improve the café’s digital presence?

  • designed and coded a fully responsive website using HTML and CSS, ensuring accessibility across digital platforms
  • implemented text-based menu listings to improve readability; compared to scanned menus commonly found on competitor sites
  • analyzed research insights to create user personas and moodboards and guide the digital interface and design decisions

Measurable outcomes & improvements

  • created ~7 responsive screens and an improved brand design to align with the café’s atmosphere, maintain consistency, and improve readability
  • conducted 2 surveys with ~50 participants and competitor analysis to identify 5 key usability issues to improve with this site
  • made the café’s menu directly accessible in 1 click to customers compared to several searching through images and other sites

Understanding the café’s users & competitors

Before designing the website, I conducted a competitive analysis on different café websites on Staten Island to understand common patterns and usability issues.

Here is some key information I found after researching some competitor websites:

  • establish a responsive layout to make sure users can access the site from different digital devices
  • maintain clear, consistent branding to strengthen the brand identity and user trust
  • avoid hard-to-read menu formats, like images

Additionally, here’s some insight I gained after conducting surveys with overall coffee shop customers:

  • customers value a calm and cozy in-store atmosphere, I can reflect this feeling onto the website
  • accessibility across devices is crucial to appeal to all audiences through all platforms
  • strengthening the café’s online presence will help attract new customers

My ideation & design process

I guided my design decisions based on the analytics from user surveys and competitive analysis. With this information, I created several deliverables prior to the main site:

  • mid-fidelity wireframes
  • moodboard, updated style guide, and a refined logo
  • clear information architecture map
  • created 2 personas representing an existing Café Juliet customer and a potential new visitor

Transforming Café Juliet’s online presence

I translated the wireframes and other deliverables into high-fidelity designs that involve everything: the updated branding, text-based menu, and product images to reflect the café’s calm and welcoming atmosphere.

Impacts, constraints, and growth

Designing and coding this website independently was a great learning experience and helped deepen my understanding of the full UI/UX design process from research and ideation to design and development.

I also presented this project at my college’s Undergraduate Research Conference and showcased the design process and research behind the website.

Successes

  • designed a fully functional and responsive website from scratch using HTML, CSS, and Figma
  • modernized the website’s design system and branding
  • provided Café Juliet with a dedicated website to expand its online presence beyond Instagram and delivery platforms

What I learned

  • design decisions have a direct impact on user experience, even if we don’t realize it as it happens
  • conducted UX research for the first time: user surveys and competitor analysis

Challenges

  • independently learned the UX and website design processes
  • creating a customer-centric design and using user research to guide design decisions

Next steps

  • create a prototype to showcase the latest version
  • conduct usability testing with staff and customers to gather actionable feedback
  • propose website to café owners and inquire about publishing

View my other works

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