Beverage Customizations

Overview

Background

Cana was on an audacious mission to create the world’s first molecular beverage printer, able to print any beverage from molecularized ingredients from a cartridge mixed with water, sugar or alternative sweeteners, and alcohol or carbonation.

This beverage printer was designed to democratize small scale manufacturing of beverages, providing infinite choice and unlimited consumption with less waste as reducing plastic, cans, and CO2 was part of our mission.

Problem

Today, user’s can’t customize canned or bottled beverages except by adding these to other canned and bottled beverages (e.g. mixing Gin and Tonic and adding a lime squeeze).

Opportunity

A beverage printer allows users to adjust the taste and effects of the beverage to suit their needs and helps differentiate the product from the ready-to-drink alternatives.

iPhone Grid with customized beverages displayed

Solution

We created a beverage customization system that can be predictably applied across beverages with differing options based on the recipe and category.

Using a finite set of options and standard scales per customization helped the user feel they have control to adjust the beverage without getting overwhelmed.

Scenario 1

Customize a soda's sweetness and flavor strength

Scenario 2

Customize a cocktail's flavor strength and alcohol

Scenario 3

Customize an iced coffee's sweetness and caffeine

Role

I collaborated with our Head of Design on creating the pour experience system, and the motion and sound patterns for the countdown sequence.

Team

I collaborated with Head of Product, Product Manager, Head of Software, Head of Firmware for product definition and feasibility and presented final work to 2 in-house software engineers and an engineering team located in India.

Process

Empathy Interviews

I reviewed empathy interviews where customers ranked Customization as the 2nd most important value of the device. I then reviewed early customization concepts to understand what had been explored and what was learned.

Flavor & Size Whiteboarding

For drinks with multiple flavors, we decided users could only customize how strong the flavors were overall, not allowing them to individually control flavor levels. For sizing, we iterated on there only being full, half, and taster size.

Flavor & Size Whiteboard Concept Exploration

Usability Testing

I lead a usability study with 10 pre-order customers that resulted in the big-text 5-point scale being preferred by most users over the slider alternative approach.

Motion Design

We used a star to communicate the settings that were changed and when a beverage was customized. The animated sticker helps gamify the experience, rewarding the user with a delightful star for customizing their beverage.