Spoons vs. Sticks – How signaling can enhance user experience


The best coffee shops in New York provide spoons to stir your coffee rather than wooden sticks or plastic stirrers. Spoons are more effective than plastic stirrers and wooden sticks at mixing sugar and milk in to coffee. However, I don’t think that’s why coffee shops offer spoons. I think they provide spoons because it signals to their customers that they care.

The best coffee shops CARE about a lot of things:

  • The best coffee shops take care when they create their coffee
  • The best coffee shops care about the origin of the beans (fair trade)
  • The best coffee shops care about the environment
  • The best coffee shops (probably) care about their employees

Washing spoons rather than creating waste is one way that best coffee shops signal to customers that they give a shit about the things their customers value. How do you signal to your customers they are among friends at your business, or in your web application?

So what are the best coffee shops?
My all time favorite is Intelligentsia Coffee in Venice, CA. You’ll get a feel for it in this video:

Some great New York coffee places are:

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