From idea to Kickstarter launch: connected coffee product with app + hardware.
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Background
Blackcoffee.io was a connected coffee experience designed around hand-brew methods like V60 pour-over. Brewing requires skill and precision, so we built an app that records pouring patterns (time, weight, flow rate) and allows users to share recipes with friends, helping them recreate each other’s brews.
My Role
Design Lead
Co-founder
Platform
Mobile
Year
2020
Challenge
Pour-over coffee (like V60) requires precision and practice. Timing, weight, and pouring rhythm directly affect taste, but it’s difficult to record and share brewing patterns. Even slight changes in pour weight, timing, or rhythm can completely alter the flavor. Yet brewers had no way to capture or replicate their process. Coffee lovers wanted a way to learn, replicate, and improve their brews.
Solution
I designed and launched Blackcoffee.io, a connected coffee product with a mobile companion app:
• App (React Native): recorded pour-over patterns (time, weight, flow) and visualized them.
• Social features: users could save recipes and share with friends, making brewing collaborative.
• Hardware integration: connected scale + timer synced with the app. This combined physical design, IoT, and mobile UX to make expert brewing accessible and social.
Design Challenge: The Pouring Experience
Design Challenge: The Pouring Experience
One of the hardest problems was connecting the physical ritual of pouring with the digital app feedback. The experience had to feel natural, immediate, and precise — otherwise users wouldn’t trust it.
Working Prototype:
Early versions simply logged weight and time as raw numbers on a screen. I tested with users, but they all said the same thing: it felt like just a stopwatch and a scale. There was nothing that connected back to the ritual of coffee brewing — no sense of rhythm, flow, or craft. The app was technically functional, but emotionally disconnected.
The Craft:
The Pouring Experience
From left to right, the app mirrors the real brewing process:
Start → Timer begins at 0:00, with the dripper and carafe empty.
First Pour → As water is added, the blue fill rises in the dripper, matching the weight shown on the scale.
Pause → During bloom or wait steps, the fill holds steady, reinforcing rhythm and timing.
Second Pour → As pouring continues, the fill rises again, showing precision and flow (e.g. spiral rotation).
Drip Through → The carafe fill increases as liquid passes through, while the dripper level drops, creating a living rhythm of pour + drip.
The Actual Working Demo
This design transformed the app from cold numbers into a visual brewing companion, not just log data. It shows users what’s happening while they brew, creating confidence and emotional connection. Testers loved it, saying it felt like the app was “brewing with me.”
Beyond the Pouring experience
I designed the entire experience — not just the app.
Branding → warm, craft-inspired palette to match coffee culture.
Onboarding flow → guiding first-time brewers with clear steps.
Recipe sharing flow → letting users save and share their unique brew patterns with friends, so others could replicate the same taste.
Owning these details ensured the product felt cohesive, premium, and trustworthy from the very first interaction.
The Branding
The Onboarding Flow
The Actual Figma Design, Landing page, Create Guide and Share
The App Demo
The App Demo
Result
Successfully launched on Kickstarter, backed by a global community of coffee enthusiasts.
First-of-its-kind connected brewing product combining app + hardware.
Testers reported higher confidence and enjoyment in their brewing process.
Take aways
Design is a continuous learning process — it starts with observing and listening before making decisions.
Great design balances user needs with the business value of the product.
Designing across hardware and mobile taught me that real-time, synchronized feedback builds emotional trust — a principle I now apply to SaaS and AI products.
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