Premium touch-screen experience for barista approved coffee.
ETNA Coffee Technologies aimed to modernize its professional espresso machines by replacing traditional button interfaces with a touchscreen. The challenge was to design a user-friendly interface that would convey a ‘coffee feel’ and enhance the user experience while accommodating a wide range of beverage options and customization features.
Etna Coffee Technologies
Industry
Food and beverage
My role
Digital product design lead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31HuEPCypXA
Understanding the coffee counter
We defined a coffee-inspired look & feel, using subtle visual distinctions to help users easily differentiate coffee and milk variations. Mapping various user roles and jobs to be done guided the creation of an intuitive interface enabling quick, effortless selection from a broad range of products, ensuring a minimal learning curve. Close collaboration with Etna’s team ensured technical compatibility of the interface design with ETNA’s existing software and hardware systems.
From Buttons to Touch
Pragmatically exploring various interaction concepts using sketched wireframe prototypes to quickly test and verify user interaction concepts. The goal was to optimize the user flow by developing an entirely new interaction model focused on intuitive navigation and ease of use.
Crafting the Coffee Look & Feel
Combining 3D modelling, rendering and graphic design to create a realistic set of icons and visuals. This approach allowed the client to provide feedback and refine the icons using their coffee expertise. Optimized the screen layout specifically for the selected 7-inch LCD with a capacitive touchscreen, ensuring clarity and visual appeal.
From Prototype to Production
-
The 7″ touchscreen interface became the foundation for ETNA’s SmartTouch product family, now spanning both 7″ and 10″ screens across their entire range of medium and large espresso machines. What started as a single interface project evolved into a core product line feature, marketed by ETNA and their dealer network as a headline differentiator in a competitive professional coffee market.
- Scalable design system: The interaction model and visual language set the baseline for all subsequent SmartTouch variants, enabling ETNA’s software team to expand the product range without redesigning from scratch.
- Market relevance: The touchscreen positioned ETNA competitively against larger rivals, aligning the product with modern user expectations in offices, hospitality, and institutional settings.
- Seamless handoff: Close collaboration with ETNA’s engineering team ensured full design-to-implementation consistency across hardware and software.
