Transforming the Learner Experience in Barista School with Service Design

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to redesign the learner experience for barista school customers using Service Design. The case company is a small business focusing on coffee, media, and education. The focus of this research is the learner experience in this barista school. The main objectives are to define key elements that contribute to the learner experience, develop detailed personas that represent company’s customer segments, analyse the learner journey to identify pain points and propose actionable solutions for improvement.

The foundation of this thesis is built upon several key concepts and theories. The first layer covers experiential learning theories, adult learning, and the dynamics of individual and group learning. The second layer focuses on learning experience design and the learner-centric approach, which prioritise the learner’s goals, needs, and ecosystems over structuring curricula and instructions. The final layer includes service-dominant logic and customer-dominant logic. Within this extensive framework, there are two key concepts: service experience and customer experience. The learning (learner) experience represents a lower-level concept, focusing on the experience throughout the learner's journey. This journey is seen as a co-created, experiential process with the focus on how it is integrated into the context of learners' professional life.

Research orientated development is used as the central development approach, with the development method - service design. This thesis primarily employs qualitative research methods. To gather data, semi-structured interviews, participant observations, questionnaire were used, as well as a co-creative workshop to develop a current-state customer journey map. To analyse the research data, the Gioia method of qualitative data analysis and frameworks for prioritisation were used. As development methods, personas and a co-creative workshop to design a future-state customer journey map were used.

Based on the knowledge base and results of research, the Learner Experience Model in the barista school was built. It consists of several experiential components: cognitive, affective, sensory experience, manual skills building, interpersonal interaction, physical environment, meanings and identity, and control. This model guided the design and testing of a learner experience prototype in the case company. Also, six persona cards, representing main customer segments, were created to support design process.

The outcome of the project was the creation of several solutions to the main research question, covering both short-term and long-term implementation. The first learner experience prototype was tested, and feedback analysed. These solutions included improvements to pre-training communication, scheduling, group cohesion, manual skills support, incorporating of collaborative learning opportunities, and the designing barista workbook. Key solutions from the second phase included balancing theory and practice, improving website content, clarifying entry criteria, standardising the enrolment process, developing a loyalty program and fostering post-course engagement. The third phase focused on expanding the learning programs to include customer service and finance, creating advanced content and designing new courses. Areas for further development include creating metrics to assess the impact of redesigned learning experiences and exploring opportunities with the new course offerings and business models using future-thinking methodology.