Expressoh!

Connect over coffee: meet professionals, build relationships, grow your network.

NYC connection paradox, connected yet isolated

You’d think in a city like New York, meeting new people would be easy. But for many grad students, young professionals, and career-changers, it’s actually the opposite. Everyone’s busy, routines are packed, and starting a conversation can feel awkward. From our early interviews, it was clear—people want to connect, they just don’t know how or when.

How we identified user challenges?

8

users were interviewed, young professionals new to NYC (less than 2 years), to explore challenges in building meaningful connections.

Why?

Young professionals find traditional networking awkward and overly formal.

How?

We designed Expressoh!—a swipe-based app that connects users over shared values and café meetups.

Who?

8 users interviewed: grad students and early-career professionals seeking authentic social connection.

What if meeting someone in your field felt as easy as grabbing a coffee with a friend?

Introducing Expressoh!

Introducing
Expressoh!

Connecting young professionals across the city over shared values, goals, with a cup of coffee

Where Coffee Meets Connection

Swipe to Explore Cafés

Discover local cafés that fit your vibe.

Smart Matching


Get curated daily matches based on shared café preferences, industries, and goals.

Get curated daily matches based on shared café preferences.

AI assisted chat

Brew is an AI that suggests a time and café that works for both people—effortlessly planning your meetup.

Get curated daily matches based on shared café preferences.

Rewards

Users earn Bean Bucks for engaging with the app—redeemable at partnered cafés.

Users earn Bean Bucks for engaging with the app.

The users loved…

What worked, what didnot

Green indicates users were successful in completing the task, yellow means users experienced confusion or needed assistance, and red shows they were unsuccessful. Overall, most tasks were completed successfully across participants, as reflected by the predominance of green.

Insight to Iteration

Insight 1

Users needed a clearer, more focused rewards screen—leading to a simplified design with integrated progress tracking.

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Insight 2

Users found the anonymity disconnecting and wanted to see faces earlier to feel more comfortable and engaged.

"I would like to see their faces. Seeing the real person's face humanizes them."

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Insight 3

The Home page was redesigned to prioritize upcoming meetups and café discovery, shifting the focus from user avatars to shared spaces for more intentional and intuitive connections.

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Old design

New Design

Find Your People,
One Café at a Time

You’ve swiped through cafés, connected with your daily match, and scheduled a meetup—now the Home screen brings it all together.

Revisit your liked cafés, see your upcoming meetup, and explore spontaneous tables you can join in real time.

Whether you’re planning ahead or showing up in the moment, Espressoh! turns every café visit into a chance to connect.

Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Connection needs context

Users were more open to networking when they could see real faces and shared café preferences


Clarity drives engagement


Clarity drives engagement:

Small UX changes—like simplifying navigation and labels—helped users feel more confident exploring the app.


Iterate with users


Iterate with
users




Iterate with users

User testing challenged our assumptions and pushed the design to be more human, intentional, and adaptable.


View Expressoh prototype in Figma HERE

View Expressoh prototype in Figma HERE

© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha

© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha

© 2025- Shreesa Shrestha