Role: User Experience Lead

Partner/Client: Nettle

Industry: Hospitality - Cafe

Project: Reimagining the Community Cafe Experience

Year: 2025

Leading transformational service design to enhance operations and customer experience at a community cafe.

Nettle Customer Experience Blueprint

This blueprint maps the operational depth of the experience, connecting frontstage interactions with the systems and teams that support them. Each lane captures how activities unfold over time - from ongoing continuous tasks to triggered processes that respond to specific moments in the journey. From research, I detailed the roles, tools, and customer queries to show how internal effort translates into customer impact, making it easier to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.

Full Nettle CX Flow here

Discover

Cafe floorplan highlighting hotspots of frustration.

Using service design principles to co-create and improve daily operations, teamwork, and customer experience within a local community cafe.

During the summer, I joined a newly opened community cafe, Nettle, as a front-of-house team member after returning from five months of travelling. Working behind the counter offered a different rhythm to agency life, but was full of the same human dynamics that shape every service.

With my service design head still very much on, I began observing interactions, listening to customers and teammates, and noting small frictions and missed opportunities. I mapped the end-to-end experience to understand how internal processes, digital systems, team interactions, and physical space influenced the customer journey. This led me to design and facilitate a co-creation workshop with the entire cafe team - chefs, kitchen porters, baristas, front-of-house, and management. Together, we shared frustrations and collaboratively identified areas for improvement. The session helped the team see the cafe as one connected service, strengthened communication across roles, and laid the foundation for practical, low-cost improvements to both operations and customer experience.

This project is ongoing, but it has already reminded me that design isn’t limited to a job title or a desk; it’s a way of seeing, listening, and improving whatever’s in front of you. My role is now split between front-of-house and user experience lead, allowing me to apply service design skills in a live, ever-evolving environment. As we continue to refine the cafe’s day-to-day operations, I’m also helping shape its broader vision, expanding Nettle’s offering, and establishing it as a space where good food, creativity, and community come together.

POS & Order Management

Inconsistent ways of using the till and handling tickets lead to mistakes, delays, and frustration between front-of-house, barista, and kitchen teams. Without a shared standard for how orders are entered or passed on, communication breaks down, and extra time is spent double-checking or correcting errors.

  • Inconsistent order entry: Everyone uses the till slightly differently e.g. how modifiers are added or whether notes are included, which leads to confusion in the kitchen.

  • Unclear tickets: Missing stamps or unclear notes cause confusion. Sometimes tickets don’t clearly show what the customer actually ordered.

  • Knowledge gaps: Staff vary in their understanding of the modifiers available.

  • Training: A need for a structured onboarding or refresher guidance on the till.

Communication and Team Coordination

When things get busy, communication and coordination often break down. Without clear roles, rituals for coordination, structured handovers, or shared tools, information gets lost and stress levels rise. The team ends up reacting to problems instead of anticipating them. Information lives in people’s heads or scraps of paper that disappear.

  • Unclear roles during service: Team members jump in to help wherever they can, but this sometimes causes overlap, duplication, or missed tasks.

  • Information gets lost: Notes written by the till or passed verbally don’t always reach everyone - updates like 86’d items or table changes can go unseen.

  • Reactive culture: Sometimes communication is triggered by stress or instead of being planned, predictable, and preventative.

  • Communication under pressure: When things get stressful, communication tends to happen through frustration or urgency (e.g. “banging the bell”), rather than structured cues or calm updates.

Customer Experience & Engagement

Customers love the cafe’s atmosphere and story, but small gaps in communication (in-store and online) sometimes make the experience feel uncertain. Without clear prompts on how to order, what’s available, or what makes Nettle special, new visitors can feel unsure, and regulars can miss out on the full offering.

  • Unclear ordering process: Some customers aren’t sure whether to order at the bar or wait to be seated.

  • More visual guidance: Menus and signage don’t always explain specials, dietary options, or takeaway availability.

  • Limited external communication: The cafe’s social media and Google Maps listings don’t yet reflect its full character, story, or changing menu.

  • Untapped community potential: Opportunities exist to build a stronger sense of belonging - through more events, collaborations, and sharing the cafe’s personality beyond the counter.

Physical Layout & Space Flow

The cafes layout makes it difficult for staff and customers to move smoothly during busy times. Narrow walkways, tight corners, and unclear zones cause bottlenecks, congestion, spills, and frustration. Small environmental factors e.g. how customers move through the space or where items are stored, have a big impact on how safe and efficient service feels.

  • Crowding points: Space behind the bar and near the KP corner becomes crowded, especially during rushes, increasing the risk of spills or accidents.

  • Customer movement affects flow: Tables and chairs rearranged mid-service disrupt circulation - it blocks walkways and disrupts service routes.

  • No defined zones: Takeaway orders and pot collection areas overlap with main flow.

  • Safety and comfort issues: The entrance can become slippery when wet, and some tables feel too close to serving routes, making staff nervous about carrying hot food.

Parked Clusters

Two clusters, Menu & Offering Development and Facilities & Resources, have been parked for the time being. As Nettle is still a new cafe, some of these areas are tied to ongoing maintenance, kitchen setup, and menu refinement. Once foundational systems and service processes are more stable, these opportunities will be revisited as part of the café’s long-term development roadmap.

This project is still evolving as we test new ways to improve both the customer experience and how we work together. We meet regularly as a team to reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and how the changes are affecting us day to day. We’ve also been chatting with customers and regulars to understand what’s making a real difference for them. To stay focused, we’ve set a few success measures to track the impact of these trials - both in customer outcomes and in how smoothly we operate as a team. It’s a continuous process of learning, adapting, and building something that works better for everyone.