Case Study — Cafe Mornings
2025
UX/UI Design, Front-end Development, Brand System Integration
About
Cafe Mornings is a family-run Korean cafe and market in the Catskills, serving breakfast and lunch alongside curated pantry items and gifts. Their visitors include locals, families, and food-driven travelers passing through the scenic Route 28 highway.
Existing Site Audit
I evaluated the existing site using heuristic analysis and scenario-based review, focusing on how first-time visitors and returning users locate key information and understand the cafe’s offerings.
Issues:
• Visual Consistency: Inconsistent typography, color usage, and button styles reduced brand credibility and made the interface feel unstructured
• Information Heirarchy: No clear path for primary actions and key user goals
○ Travelers seeking menu, hours, location
○ Locals browsing pantry items
• Usability & Navigation: Menu was difficult to locate and not easily scannable
• Information Architecture: No clear distinction between cafe, market, and event offerings, making it difficult to understand the business model.
• User Perception: The homepage did not communicate what makes Cafe Mornings distinct, especially for first-time visitors and travelers
Project Goals
• Clarify the site structure to support primary user goals (view menu, plan visit, browse market items)
• Improve navigation and content hierarchy for faster access to key information
• Establish a clear distinction between cafe and market offerings
• Create a strong first impression for first-time visitors discovering the cafe online
• Build a flexible, maintainable system that the client can update independently
User flow diagram addressing key user goal and issues from audit
My Role
• Contributed to UX/UI strategy through wireframes and iterative design decisions
• Designed and Developed site pages within a CMS (Squarespace), using custom code to extend layout and interaction patterns.
Translated visual assets into a modular UI system aligned with content structure
• Designed interaction patterns(buttons, hover states, loading animations) to support usability and feedback
• Delivered documentation to support client handoff and ongoing site updates
Constraints
• No existing content hierarchy or structured information architecture
• Platform constraints required scalable, low-maintenance layout solutions
• Limited budget and development scope
• Needed to support multiple offerings (cafe, market, events) within a unified system
Validation & Inputs
• Heuristic evaluation of the existing site
• Informal usability checks (users locating menu and hours)
• Review of comparable cafe websites to understand common patterns
Key Design Decisions
Homepage prioritizes orientation before action
The homepage was structured to help users quickly understand what Cafe Mornings is before engaging with specific actions like viewing the menu or browsing products. Because many visitors arrive with little context (often from search or maps), it was important to clearly communicate the cafe’s hybrid identity as a dining, retail, and special event space. Emphasizing orientation risks slowing down users who are looking for immediate information. To resolve this, key actions such as menu, hours, and location were kept accessible through persistent navigation and early placement within the page.
Navigation structured around user intent
Navigation was organized around primary user goals—visiting the cafe (menu, hours), browsing the market, and learning about the space. The previous structure did not reflect how users approached the site, making it harder to find relevant information. A more defined structure improved clarity but risked reducing the site’s exploratory and playful feel. This was addressed by maintaining visual flexibility within a consistent and predictable navigation system.
Clear separation of cafe and market experiences
Distinct pathways and page structures were created for cafe and market content to better support different user behaviors. Users interacting with the cafe needed quick, scannable information, while those browsing the market required a more exploratory experience. Separating these introduced a risk of fragmenting the overall experience, which was mitigated by maintaining a shared visual language and consistent UI patterns across both sections.
Visual system supports hierarchy, not just branding
Illustration and visual elements were used intentionally to guide attention and reinforce content hierarchy rather than act as purely decorative elements. While the existing visual assets were expressive, they lacked integration with the interface structure. Prioritizing clarity required reducing visual density in some areas, which risked weakening the brand’s personality. This was resolved by applying visual elements selectively at key moments to support both readability and identity.
Results
The redesigned site improves clarity, navigation, and first-time user comprehension while maintaining a distinct visual identity. By restructuring content and aligning layout decisions with user needs, the experience now supports both quick, task-based visits and more exploratory browsing.
• Clearer distinction between cafe and market offerings
• Faster access to key information (menu, location, hours)
• Stronger first impression for new visitors
• Flexible, modular structure that allows the client to update content easily
• Informal usability checks indicated users were able to locate key information more quickly
