They’ve been working hard. So, there was only one thing to do next: Go to Starbucks!

Why Starbucks? It’s in the neighborhood. As far as design is concerned, Starbucks is really doing something right. It’s a huge, worldwide franchise, and yet no two Starbucks are laid out exactly the same. We observed that they design according to the confines of the architecture of the building. And besides, inspiration has long been found in cafes.

Once we all ordered a beverage, we noticed some things:

This fancy “Clover” machine makes one cup at a time. Slowly and deliberately. It needed lots of attention from one of the baristas. How can they serve so many people with this? There are LOTS of drinks on the menu.

And then came a big distraction:

Jack and Gwen were now “Jake” and “Wen”?!?

Olivia is “Oliver”?!?!?!?

We had to laugh. And this point of screwing up names ended up being brought up again later.

Next, all of the students were challenged to look at the layout of the store, critically. They noticed the flow of the customers, the shapes of the furniture and lights, and the synergy between the employees and the machines.

One noticed, “Wait. Why do they call it ‘tall’? Shouldn’t they just call it a ‘small’ since it’s the smallest size?” When I asked, why he thought Starbucks chose ‘tall’, the student’s answer was clear: “Because it makes it sound bigger.” Is bigger always better? You heard it hear from a Big Timer.

The challenge now was, “If you had your own coffee shop, what ideas would you steal from Starbucks and what would you change?”

One response was, “If I had a coffee shop, I would call my small sizes the French word for ‘small’ to make it sound fancy.” “Petite!”, another said. Is fancier better? These are things to consider when designing just about anything. From drinks to coffee shops and even shoes, cars, bedrooms, basketball formulas, and weather satellites.

We would keep:

• The long, wooden community table, the overall “cozy” feeling, the grey colors and modern look, the cool light fixtures, the spectrum coffee diagram, and the good music.

We would change:

• Improving customer service so they’d get everyone’s name right on the cups!

Goals for next week include:

• Caroline will research coffee shop dimensions and regulations.
• Olivia is going grocery shopping to experiment with her own frappuccino recipe.
• Alexa may inquire with Jeremiah about building a robot that could shoot a mini basketball.
• Gwen wants to research where the NY1 Studios are, maybe start on a 3D model of her satellite, and look up Neil deGrasse Tyson.
• Sophie is going to Pottery Barn’s teen website where she can create digital layouts of her own room design: http://www.pbteen.com/design-studio/?cm_type=gnav
• Luke is going to bring in old basketball shoes to dissect.
• Jack is going to research about the local Maserati for a possible visit and he’ll also check out http://www.audiusa.com/