UX In Coffee

How UX Principles Shaped My Role as a New Shop Opening Manager (Before I Even Knew What UX Was)

Before I ever heard the term user experience in a design context, I was living and breathing it every day in coffee shops.

As a New Shop Opening Manager and Trainer, my job wasn’t just to help get the doors open, it was to design and deliver a customer experience that reflected the brand, flowed intuitively, and made things easier for both the team and the guest. Without realising it, I was applying UX fundamentals to physical spaces and team operations, using empathy, journey mapping, systems thinking, and iteration as the backbone of my approach.

Designing the Flow: Mapping the Customer Journey

Every shop had to be more than just beautiful, it needed to work. When a guest walked in, they shouldn’t have to guess where to order, wait, or collect. I treated the space like an interface, thinking through the user flow from entrance to exit. This included:

  • Wayfinding and visibility: Ensuring it was obvious where to go, what to do, and how we operate as a brand.

  • Touchpoints and interactions: Designing the handoff moments between team and customer, from first greeting to the final “thank you.”

This process mirrored the UX principle of reducing cognitive load and making navigation seamless.

Empowering the Team: Clear Roles and Intuitive Systems

I also applied UX thinking to staff training. I wrote site-specific training plans and job roles that reflected the needs of each shop’s customers, whether they were high-volume commuters or leisurely weekend brunchers.

  • Task clarity: By simplifying core tasks and creating clear systems, I made it easier for staff to focus on what mattered: engaging with customers.

  • Consistency across locations: I established repeatable standards while adapting to the nuances of each site, much like a responsive design.

  • User Personas: Understanding the type of customers in each location and tailoring the service to their needs.

This led to smoother operations, quicker service, and a better experience for everyone. Reducing friction behind the bar increased our speed of service, reduced wait times, and allowed for more meaningful customer interaction, a win-win.

Natural UX Thinking: Intuition Meets Role Demands

At the time, I didn’t call it UX. But in hindsight, that’s exactly what it was: putting the user, be it the customer or the staff member, at the centre, designing systems that serve real needs, and continuously iterating to improve.

This realisation is what led me to formally pursue UX as the next step in my career. It felt like a natural extension of the work I was already doing, just translated from physical spaces and operations into digital products and services.