Wawa Bean-to-Batch Animations
Senior UX Designer (contract) | Publicis Sapient
Wawa, a large chain of convenience stores and gas stations located along the East Coast, was looking to elevate their coffee experience with the addition of their Bean-to-Batch initiative; a series of new coffee machines installed in-store that simultaneously grinds beans and brews fresh coffee, all while the customer waits.
The Opportunity
In order to improve the wait experience of their kiosks, I was brought on to provide illustrations and animations that conveyed progress to the user. These animations needed to be simple, yet entertaining.
In a world where user attention is sparce and time spent waiting for your coffee often feels like an eternity, this effort to add some joy to the kiosk experience was a vital moment for Wawa, a brand who puts friendliness front and center in their brand guidelines.
Considerable time was spent understanding the brand and studying similar moments of “surprise and delight.” This discovery journey helped define the visual language and playfulness of the final designs.
Finding the Right Style
Several Illustrative styles/themes were explored and presented to Wawa leadership before an eventual direction was settled on.
I ensured synergy between the illustrations and Wawa’s established brand guidelines by calling upon Wawa’s core ideals; like convenience, hospitality and friendliness. This led to a lot of iteration and experimentation. Eventually a simple style was settled on, one that played with line and flirted with representation.
Below are some of the test animations I created. Everything was done on Adobe After Effects.
Reflection
After several rounds of revisions and feedback, I eventually settled on these playful, black and white designs which you can view below. The resulting animations provide a fun, crisp experience that complements freshly prepared coffee perfectly.
This project pushed me out of my comfort zone but provided a great opportunity to play with visual language. It was also a fun chance to assist a brand that I, as a NJ native, I have loved for a very long time.•