Starbucks App Review!

Hello everyone! Loons Here!

Welcome to the very first review of the Technologic blog! Today, we'll review an app I begrudgingly use far too often. The app I'm referring to is the Starbucks app. Those of you who use the app probably know some of the frustrations. It's not a terrible app. For simply ordering coffee, the app does the job. There are some things present with these apps that irk me a bit. That said, let's get into it!



 

When opening the app, you will find yourself on the home page, which will show your "star balance," which is essentially just reward points for getting more coffee or whatever other sugary concoction your heart desires. Scrolling down will get you the latest featured items that Starbucks is focusing on selling. I enjoy a simple layout; this app screams that the main point is to sell you as much as possible regardless of whether you've ever taken any interest in that particular product in the past. The color palette is the familiar Starbucks green and some pastel greens in lighter and darker shades. I would say the aesthetic comes together nicely to create something visually pleasing in places not filled with product ads. The app is fast and responsive, with almost zero lagging between tabs. It's quick to open, and I don't have to constantly update every time I log in, which is nice compared to other food/drink ordering apps.

One thing that becomes a bit overwhelming when searching the app is the amount of overlays Starbucks has chosen to use. Some have been closed out in these screenshots, but you'll notice the "clear bag" and "start checkout" overlays on every page when you're trying to read through the rest if you happen to have something in your "bag." There is also an overlay at the bottom telling you what store you're ordering from and the amount of things in your bag. It feels a bit like trying to navigate one of those news sites where there is less emphasis on getting the story out and more emphasis on placing as many pop-up ads as humanly possible to drive ad revenue. One improvement I would suggest is leaving the checkout and store pickup overlays out and keeping that information in its own checkout tab. This would reduce the amount of things on screen and still allow the customer to have this information readily available. Especially considering that this information IS available on the checkout screens, it's just thrown in your face everywhere else, as well.

My biggest complaint with the app is the funds loading/ordering system. The obvious solution, and my second suggestion to improve the app, is to allow me to add a card to the app and order directly from that card so I'm only ever spending precisely what I want on the app. Unfortunately, as basic as this sounds, this is not the case with the Starbucks app. Instead, you are forced to add your card to the app and then use that card to purchase specific amounts to load into your app as if you're using a gift card. You can then use the balance to order your coffee. This is, of course, intentional. If someone orders a coffee and has money left over on their balance, they will be inclined to order from Starbucks again because they already have that leftover money loaded into the app. There is nothing on the menu that will equal out exactly to the determined amounts that you are forced to load. 

The last recommendation I feel I could make for this app would be to remove some of the redundancy. However, I feel this may also be intentional because, after all, most of the redundant things are essentially ads. The home tab shows several offers, including current deals and how star balances work, but this exact same information in the same layout is found on the offers tab as well. I've posted two screenshots that are almost identical, but you'll notice they are on different tabs. As I stated before, I prefer a simpler layout. I like using an app to make my life easier, and I'm not a fan of constantly being bombarded by advertisements. I already want the product; I'm using the application to make getting that product easier. By removing these redundant pages and providing an easier payment method, businesses ensure they keep customers like me. That said, I know that a mountain of marketing research goes into squeezing every last dollar out, so perhaps my recommendations simply aren't what ensures they get the most profit year over year. Overall, the app itself does exactly what it's designed to do, and the fact that I continue to use it is unfortunate proof of that.