Product Designer

Starbucks

Starbucks

 
 
 

As a contractor, I was involved in the lead-up to Starbucks’ launch of mobile order-ahead and payment. This was a milestone achievement for Starbucks that occupied much of 2013. The redesigned app heavily featured visual assets. I contributed to the effort in two key ways: product menu photography and branded gift cards.

Product menu photography

Product photography plays a huge role in the Starbucks express order system. The interface heavily features photos of products you can order simply by tapping on them. Starbucks offered me the job of selecting photos for the 200+ items on the menu. I received access to an eight terabyte database of a decade’s worth of original, unedited professional product photography. Finding the right photo from among the tens of thousands available would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

BUILDING A DATABASE: I solved the enormous challenge of finding photos. A decade’s worth of original, RAW product photos lived on a 100+ terabyte drive which slowly responded to search queries. I initiated an 8-day rsync download from the server to an external drive. I used Adobe Bridge to quickly search photos by their EXIF metadata and choose the best options to turn into Smart Objects inside Adobe Photoshop.

STRATEGY: The problem Starbucks posed to me is ultimately a creative one. In reality, everyone who orders a beverage at Starbucks receives either the standard paper or plastic cup. My goal is to create a fantasy. In order to entice customers, I selected photos for the color, composition, visual elements, and overall impact.

I had fun editing the photos. I made the executive decision to flip all product photos so straws and mug handles appear on the right-hand side. I airbrushed photos onto different backgrounds, adjusted the color, and looked for ways to retouch photos.

HANDOFF: I exported hundreds of product photos at multiple sizes, which I then uploaded into a cloud server for the live app. The efficiencies and process improvements I brought to the project save enormous time, so much so that it allowed testing to begin sooner.

Everyone using the app from testing through launch saw my photos. When Starbucks released mobile ordering, it quickly became the largest point of sale in the world. This app is the product of many peoples’ work, and I am proud to have been a part of it.


Gift Cards

Starbucks prints hundreds of unique gift cards celebrating holidays, special events, sports teams, and more. Customers make a sentimental connection with designs. They are personal and recognizable.

Starbucks brought me in to create digital versions of their gift cards. This was a complicated project because the print artwork was never intended for digital. Extensive changes would need to be made to each file, meticulously by hand, in order to make it suitable for digital publication. Furthermore, in order to satisfy the needs of iOS, Android, and web, I would generate 27 pixel-perfect sizes, each with varying borders, transparencies, and corners.

ENGINEERING A SOLUTION: Initially, Starbucks estimated each artwork file would take 30 minutes to process by hand, and the whole project would take roughly 2 months. In a weekend, I created an Adobe Illustrator action script to process each gift card in minutes. I reduced the project down to 2 days.

BATCH PROCESSING: My process output thousands of perfect images for implementation. Because the process relies on automation, there is less room for human error to slow down the process. The script is flexible enough to be useful for future projects, as well.


GIFT CARDS:

 

WHAT I LEARNED: I had a chance to use Starbucks mobile order ahead in the test market of Portland, Oregon before it launched nationwide. The experience was incredible. The team at Starbucks made a wise decision to invest time and energy in making the app visually appealing. I’m proud to have been part of the process.