Grocery Food Code Systems: Coffee

Data Visualization
Digital, Print

April 2024

A data based project codifying food information into graphics. For the purposes of this project, I decided to focus on coding coffee information into an illustrative graphic. Requirements for the project included research, data sets, a color system, and at least 3 categories of information.

“Create a harmonious visual code to represent various types of information for a product when scanned at checkout”

Coffee has many specific characteristics to each roast. Variables include bean type, roast level, acidity, country of origin, caffeine content, and if it is organic. Most of this content is hard to find on regular coffee products in grocery stores. This can lead to consumers buying the wrong product.
To solve this problem, I created a representative illustration that visually shows the different features of each coffee roast.

Original

Non-Organic Arabica Whole Bean Light Roast Coffee – Sourced from East Africa and South America – 2x Caffeine – High Acidity
Non-Organic Robusta Whole Bean – Medium Roast -Globally Sourced – Fair Trade Certified – 5x Caffeine – Medium Acidity
Organic Arabica and Robusta Ground Coffee – Dark Roast Globally Sourced – Fair Trade Certified – 5x Caffeine – Medium Acidity

Redesign

Organic Robusta Instant Coffee Medium-Dark Roast – Sourced from North America and South America – 1.5x Caffeine – Low Acidity
Non-Organic Arabica Instant Coffee Medium-Dark Roast – Sourced from North America and South America – Fair Trade Certified 2x Caffeine – Medium Acidity
Non-Organic Arabica Instant Coffee Medium-Dark Roast – Sourced from North America and South America – Fair Trade Certified 2x Caffeine – Medium Acidity

Final Design

I reduced and refined different aspects of my original design to create a simplified and easily understandable graphic for coffee lovers. Theoretically, when scanned at the grocery store, a graphic following this system will pop up for each specific roast, showing information that is not typically found on individual bags.

See Full Booklet and Research