Measuring Café Lovability Using Google’s HEART and Understanding the Roles of Usability, Sustainability Innovation, and Innovation Cocreation in Café Lovability

Abstract

This research paper explores and investigates the contemporary, developing, and under-researched concept of product lovability in the UAE café industry to introduce a scientific measure for café lovability using Google’s HEART framework for developing lovable product experiences. Taking a pragmatic view to drawing comparisons between the café ecosystem and layout and digital product interface and experience, the research elaborates on mediating roles of product (café) usability and innovation (by virtue of innovation cocreation and sustainability innovation) in the existence of café lovability. Using a deductive and quantitative approach, a measure of café lovability is devised using Google’s HEART framework to assess levels of happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success at cafés and validates findings using the brand love scale. Once measurable, café lovability is then examined for having possible associations with café usability (a measure of experience, aesthetic, and quality) and café innovation (a measure of innovation cocreation, sustainability innovation and sustainability knowledge), and we also study the mediating impact of café innovation and usability on café lovability and brand love. The resulting model for café lovability provides the means for measuring café lovability and provides grounds for understanding the roles of usability and innovation in this phenomenon. Comparing contemporary café experience with a digital product interface in order to produce a lovable coffee experience is a non-conventional approach; like product lovability, the comparison, measurement, and application relies on pragmatic and innovative strategic decision making; it is therefore considered a practical approach due to the onset of digital and creative new-age customers. Further, the concept of product lovability is gaining popularity in practice but remains undiscussed and unexplored in academic research. This study provides grounds for further scientific research—both quantitative and qualitative—to define, test, and apply the measures of lovable products to businesses outside of technology and digital offerings, as well as providing us with the opportunity to study the overlap of product and café lovability with sustainability.

1. Introduction

An earthy, strong smell of freshly brewed coffee accompanied with warm croissants and a hot, dark chocolate muffin straight from the baking tray, melts the hearts of millions every morning as they kickstart a busy weekday. Lavishly served French toasts with light jazz in the background offer perfect escapism and leisure during weekend brunches. Yet, this is not only a glimpse into an indulging experience, but also a view of contemporary urban workplace culture that has mushroomed in the last decade, now a trending gig and considered the ‘flat white economy’ [1,2,3], accounting for 28% more than Britain’s manufacturing sector and leading to most of the GDP contribution [4].

Coffee culture and cafés define identity and social styles along with economic growth, workplace culture, sustainability awareness, and knowledge creation. Be it for business meetings, team socialization, digital and e-coffees, attractive coffee perks, or as a must-have workplace experience [5,6]—coffee has it all. It not only energizes for work, but also provides family timeout, leisure, and personal wellbeing experiences at cafés. Expressions of loving coffee and being coffeeholic or a coffee lover are popular among individuals who love the coffee experience and enjoy going to cafés with family, friends, or even alone [7,8].

Today, coffee consumers seek an ethical consumption experience that offers more than just a hot drink. Apart from unique flavors, blends, and pour-over preparation methods, well-aware consumers pay premium for coffee that is organic, fair-trade, and sustainably grown. Catering to high-quality expectations and the complex demands of customers, specialty coffee shops carefully incorporate innovation and sustainability to deliver a cup that ensures end–end human connection and values. Considering the multifaceted positioning of cafés in overlapping industries [1,2,3,4], this research seeks to understand the overlap between café experiences, innovation, and sustainability-led business development.

Taking a unique and multidisciplinary stance, this paper explores the roles of innovation, sustainability, and usability in delivering a human-connected experience by extending product development theory and the knowledge around minimum lovable products to introduce and define a measure for café lovability, validating it by comparing to hedonic love expressions based on brand love theory in the context of human–café and human–coffee experiences.

Using analogies from technology-based product experiences, this study bridges the gap in the academic and scientific literature of product lovability by defining and elaborating the concept and introducing and discussing a new construct: “Café Lovability”. A comparison of two different yet related sectors (technology and cafés) contributes to new research opportunities reflected by [9,10,11] that seek research on human–technology interactions and experiences in a time when building a sustainability-led economy and ensuring sustainability led-lifestyles is vital.

This scientific study aims to provide a quantifiable measure of product lovability in cafés. Exploring the under-developed notion of product lovability [9] and extending it to cafés, the research fulfils the primary objective of defining and introducing a framework for measuring ‘café lovability’. The concept of café lovability is comprised of dimensions that make cafés appear more lovable, drive joy among individuals, and encourage return visits. Focusing on the UAE café culture and industry, the research explores and defines a café lovability measure by using the HEART framework devised by Google for creating lovable user experiences in technology-based interfaces and products. Subsequently, the measured café lovability is further examined for the association between and mediating effects of usability and innovation.

The outcome of this research provides significant contributions in the creation of new knowledge and offers grounds for future research to study and understand the overlapping roles of product experience, usability, and innovation with sustainability actions in everyday coffee experiences, from digital and leisure experiences to that everyday morning cup of coffee.

2. Theoretical Background

Cafés are an integral part of multidimensional industries and the economy; they are involved in food and beverages, leisure, hospitality, the coffee industry, and people’s general lifestyle. Competitive advancements have transformed cafés from the small, corner coffee shops of early 1970s to full range retail outlets that offer a variety of services and experiences (apart from elementary coffee), thus defining the café culture of the 21st century. As pivotal components of the new work culture [12,13], cafés provide ideal co-workspaces and incubation hubs for innovators, freelancers, consultants, the millennial workforce, and digital nomads [14]. While café culture is not within the scope of this research, it provides ground for the study of product lovability in the context of innovation and usability within cafés.

2.1. Café Culture in UAE—Blend of Tradition and Creativity

The UAE, with its rich heritage, not only excels in hospitality but also preserves and promotes its culture and heritage through strategic initiatives. This also includes protecting the heritage of traditional Arabic Coffee (called Gahwa) along with the values of hospitality, respect, and etiquette when serving Arabic Coffee to guests [15]. A true Arabic coffee experience starts with roasting, grinding, and preparing the right blend of coffee using traditional utensils; it is then perfected to international standards of flavor, taste, sweetness, acidity, and aftertaste; technique, originality, and creativity are all demonstrated in the process; and finally, it is served with poise and etiquette to display authentic UAE hospitality and culture in an enjoyable coffee experience [16,17].

Like international standards and its counterparts, the UAE arranges special competitions and training programs to promote and test people’s skills when preparing and serving authentic Arabic coffee. These initiatives drive value chain and value creation opportunities within the UAE café ecosystem through knowledge creation by granting permits to trained entrepreneurs who craft their own experiences of serving Gahwa while greeting guests with delight. In doing so, they sustain the deep-rooted principles of a peaceful coexistence based on the values of tolerance and respect for others for generations to come [17,18,19]. Blending tradition and creativity in the UAE’s café culture is comparable to concepts of product innovation, innovation co-creation, knowledge creation, sustainability innovation, and lovable product experiences. These concepts collectively form the main idea of measuring and understanding the concept of product lovability in cafés.

2.2. New Product Development

Growing business competition and disruption by market entrants call for an ongoing process to refine existing products and services to create innovative and unique offerings [20]. Be it producing a new flavor of rich aromatic grounded coffee; sourcing fair trade, sustainably grown coffee beans; or serving traditional Arabian coffee preserving heritage in an urban setup, it is about creating a new product or service to serve the business purpose of offering newness to customers, sustaining competition, ensuring business continuity, and achieving growth and efficient performance [21].

Incorporating a creative, research-based, customer-centric process for new product development, NPD is not only about the launch of a major innovation that radically changes the business outlook, or providing a technology breakthrough that disrupts the status quo, but is also about supplying incremental adjustments and improvements to existing products, services, or operations that provide a distinct offering and leave a significant positive impact on end users and consequently businesses [20,22,23].

The key to successful new product development is in being customer-centric, by listening to the “voice of customer” and addressing “customer pain-points” [22]. It is about maintaining quality and building and maintaining a great customer experience with attractive designs that are desirable to the customers [20]. These key success factors of including quality and visual design aspects for customer satisfaction in the overall process are the foundations of usability heuristics and building lovable product experiences, as contemporary practitioners refer to them, and hence they form the basis of this study.

Product Lovability

Grounded in the emotions of the devoted and heartfelt love of customers, product lovability, as introduced and defined by Brian Haaff, a, product specialist and entrepreneur, is the “grandpa inspired” capacity of business to gain genuine love and loyalty from customers based on strategic values of true human dignity and wellbeing [9]. It is an easy-to-miss business metric that is the secret to the success of only a few organizations, those who lead ahead in growth and profitability as well as the sustainable happiness of all the involved stakeholders.

Product lovability is an undisclosed, under-researched, contemporary, “thought provoking”, and “controversial” [9] concept which emerges from minimum viable products and gaining interest in new product development, specially software and technology-based products [24]. Recently Amazon announced it will focus more on minimum lovable products (MLPs) rather than minimum viable products (MVPs), with the former including the additional dimension of delivering delight to end users in addition to value, reliability, and usability [25].

Rooted in agile and lean product development, the origin of this customer centric approach can be traced to Brian Haaff [9,26]. Some product practitioners link it to giants such as Google, Airbnb, or Apple [27,28,29]) for delivering delightful, simple, and engaging products; others to lean product development [27] for delivering simplicity, innovation, and usability; yet others date it back to the 1980s and Noriaki Kano’s model for quality management and customer satisfaction [30,31].

Regardless of when the concept was first developed, building lovable products is in the interest of business sustainability in order to capture and retain loyal customers. While improving and delivering a delightful customer experience through lean product development and quality standards have been in practice and research for decades, the notion of “product lovability” is a 21st-century, customer-centric invention of Haaff [9], popularized parallelly under other labels such as “simplicity” and “minimum lovable products” by technology giants and product- and user-experience specialists such as Steve Jobs [32]. It therefore appears that the construct (research) of product lovability is a contemporary evolution of quality management and service excellence via delightful customer experiences, encapsulating quality, experience, and satisfaction [33].

Experience and emotions as described by [27] are two key elements of lovable products: experience in terms of simplicity and usability, and emotions in terms of pleasure and positive feelings while using a product (or service). Moller’s notion of simple and lovable products relates to the usability and innovation aspects of products as well as their aesthetics, and how these all combine to produce a positive experience. Indeed, [25] explains that lovable products offer to customers a deep delight and a state of flow that develops into an immersing experience, producing positive emotions and satisfaction that stays in the memory and leads to the repeated use of the product. Start with [9] refers to this delightful flow as a ‘halo’ that creates inspiration; present VP at Webflow and former WeWork product director, Jiaona Zhang, calls it a magic moment created through “pixie dust” or “pixie dusting” to create inspiration, leading to a flywheel of surprise and delight [34].

Elsewhere, [28] refers to Google’s HEART framework to explain that lovable products create a “magic moment” and “experience” that people care about. HEART denotes the elements of happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success experienced by users while interacting with a product [35]. It is a user-centric measurement scale used to gauge user experience for product-goal to product-progress mapping and support strategic product decision making. Henceforth, building a great experience and creating deep moments of joy, satisfaction, and engagement are the most sought aims of product lovability.

2.3. Café Lovability

A notable trend in café culture is the co-workspace, making cafés a favorite destination of digital nomads [14,36]. Using the analogy of cafés, [24] explains the minimum lovable product experience as one based on customer satisfaction, feeling valued, positive emotions, and a two-way interaction at a coffee shop. This research takes an opposite approach to measure café lovability using lovable (digital) product insights; it appears pragmatic because cafés are the favorite go-to place of UX designers and testers during the product UI/UX testing (mostly digital products), also called as the café testing phase [37].

A large segment of expected target consumers (at cafés) are technology-driven, new-age millennials who are avid Apple, Google, Netflix, Instagram, and Amazon users and well-informed and highly demanding of a better product experience. Café industry trends show that the café will continue to be a home for digital nomads; furthermore, technology- and art-driven innovations in relation to food, coffee, and overall experience will also continue to be trends in this field [14,36]. It therefore becomes rational to use a measurement tool and the standards followed by tech-savvy customers to better understand their needs (at cafés).

Based on the discussions of product lovability herein, this research considers café lovability (C’LTY) as a characteristic that makes a given café lovable to its customers and visitors. It is a measure of the extent to which a café is loved by virtue of delight, engagement, involvement, attachment, and usability.

Overarching research thus attempts to identify.

Q1: 

“How to measure café lovability?”

as well as

Q2: 

“Whether Google’s HEART framework is viable for measuring product lovability in a non-digital product such as café?”

The leading hypotheses used to explore these questions are as follows.

H1: 

Café lovability is a collective measure of happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success.

H1a: 

All variables of HEART have strong positive correlation.

H1b: 

Engagement, adoption, and retention together create a sense of happiness and task success.

Adapting Google’s HEART framework [35], this research defines the scale for measuring C’LTY by validating correlation among happiness (H), engagement (E), adoption (A), retention (R), and task success (TS) at cafés for testing the above-mentioned hypotheses and research questions. The purpose of such a measure may be argued for in the presence of existing quality standards and models. This research believes such a reasoning aligns with a pragmatic strategy decision that considers open versus closed work cultures; agile versus traditional business models; and minimum lovable versus minimum viable products. The measure lies in being customer-centric and delivering a lovable experience to customers in order to produce positive emotions, not just satisfy their needs through a quality product or achieve business objectives.

Although [31] suggests using the KANO model for building lovable products, this model is focused on product features, whereas Google’s framework is focused on user experience, attitudes, and behaviors. Experience thus involves the emotions found in interactions, whereas quality deals with physical, visual, and functional attributes. Hence, the HEART framework is considered suitable in the context of the measurement of café experience. Using such a measure, café owners and managers may gauge and enhance the performance of the café to deliver an experience that is loved by customers.

Café Brand Love—Product Lovability versus Brand Love

While the existing literature and scientific research do not provide any prominent studies on product lovability or minimum loveable products, there exists extensive research about brand love—a popular mainstream counterpart in marketing and strategic business research domains. Coined by Carroll and Ahuvia in 1991 [38], brand love refers to a customer’s “fondness of brand” and is based on the organized mental prototype of customers that arises from cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in a consumer–brand relationship. It is often compared to the interpersonal love and psychological love theories of human beings, such as the Triangular Love Theory, Love Typology, and Love Marks Theory [38,39,40].

Researchers diverge on the comparison of brand love with two-sided interpersonal affection [41], and many, including [38], regard it as a one-sided attachment towards objects, indicative of materialism [42,43]. A new comprehensive Quadruple Theory of Love [44] attempts to fill this gap by considering love (implied brand love) as a dynamic element which increases or decreases as a result of the effect of one of the four factors and exists in the presence of all the factors. Acknowledging two-sided love and the quadruple effect, this research uses Ahuvia’s one-sided version for the purpose of validating resulting C’LTY via the HEART model.

Brand love and product lovability are similar in terms of customer experience, satisfaction, pleasure, brand integration, emotional reactions, and cognitive behaviors [41,45,46]. This study regards product lovability as different to brand love, as the former is an organization’s ability to deliver usability, usefulness, uniqueness, and other functional and non-functional aspects of a lovable product through the consumer process and interactions with people, while the later focuses on establishing a product–love relationship.

This research measures café brand love (C’BL) using Carroll and Ahuvia’s scale for the purpose of validating findings of the café lovability measurement using the HEART framework. Acknowledging the existing literature and findings of the brand love construct, this research considers customers’ “love of café” as a subjective experience, equivalent to brand love, which varies among individuals within the same café. Café lovability (C’LTY) on the other hand is the extent of objective lovable experiences produced by cafés. Comparing measures of C’BL with C’LTY is expected to provide validation for H1a and H1b. It is hypothesized that for successful results when measuring C’LTY using the HEART framework, C’LTY and C’BL would need to be strongly covariant-related in such a way that higher values of C’BL would suggest the café being lovable. The resulting hypothesis states that

H1c: 

Café lovability (C’LTY) and café brand love (C’BL) have a strong positive covariant relation.

The decision to measure C’LTY using the HEART framework is based on the presence of factors of usability and innovation in cafes, where the latter two constructs are considered essential in developing lovable products [9,27,31]; in addition, C’LTY is under-researched in non-technological business streams. It is hence of interest in this research to examine

Q3: 

“If café usability and café innovation have mediating effects on C’LTY and C’BL?”

Q4: 

“What is the extent of relation among the former independent variables on latter depended on variables?”

2.4. Café Usability

Lovable products as explained by [27] provide a simple and easy experience as well as pleasure due to their aesthetics; they also provide a simplicity that is raw, beautiful, and natural. In addition, they are the means by which visual and psychological sustainability and wellness is delivered to customers [46]. Furthermore, they are easy, usable, and pleasurable, which are all principles of very good product usability [47], comparable to experiencing brand love in the presence of hedonic pleasure and satisfaction [38,45,48]. Nambisan discusses brand love in product marketing and development in relation to pragmatism, hedonism, sociability, and usability [49]. It is observed that quality and experience are two main overlapping dimensions of usability (along with aesthetics) and are primary design components [27,47].

Usability is an assessment of the ease-of-use of design interfaces and comprises of five elements: efficiency, errors, learnability, memorability, and satisfaction [47]. Usability is a complex topic that involves products being experienced and perceived at different emotional levels, [50] demonstrates that “attractive things work better”, and discusses the correlation between aesthetics and usability.

Calling “specialty coffee shops a tricky business”, Perfect Daily Grind compiles advice from coffee industry experts that suggest integrating “quality, efficiency and excellent customer service” into the café space design, stipulating an easy experience for baristas and customers in order to achieve a smooth customer flow. In marketing texts, customer experience is essential in order to obtain repeat visits [39]. Customer experience can be compared with repeat visits, views, and product use in the context of new product designs and the HEART framework discussed earlier.

This study considers usability as an overarching construct of experience, quality, and aesthetic in combination. This is due to the overlapping attributes of each component in the process of delivering ease-of-use, effectiveness, efficiency, engagement, and an error-free experience [51]. Consequently, café usability (C’Usb) is being regarded as a collective measure of a customer’s perception and feelings about the café experience, café aesthetics, and café quality.

With more than 50% of the global population digitally connected and spending an average of 7 h a day online [52,53], including UAE and KSA, which are among the top four in terms of internet usage, it is presumed that customers’ outlooks on real-life experiences are based on digital experiences. This corresponds to [11] reflection on human–technology crossroads affect service experience and interactions.

Compared to the UI/UX of digital devices, a café is visualized as an interface for customers to experience services and interact with café facilities and staff. They incorporate various touch points [54] that are analogous to digital devices, such as welcome messages, journey starters, speed-of-service information, interactions, visual displays, multi-tasking, and insta-ready layouts and spaces that are easily shared on social networks in order to generate likes and loves [7]. To explain

Q5: 

“What type of relationship exists between C’Usb and C’LTY?”

This research assumes that usability has a strong impact on café lovability. H2 is therefore that CLTY is strongly impacted by café usability.

Based on the view of simplicity and lovable products found in [27], this research extends the possibility of using Nielsen’s usability heuristics—ease-of-use, recognition, and error prevention [55]—in testing the UI/UX design experience of a café in terms café experience (C’XP), café quality (C’Q), and café aesthetics (C’A). Also, it is of interest to understand role of café usability in café lovability (C’lty) and café brand love (C’bl). As a result, we test the below hypotheses.

H2a:

Café usability is a measure of café experience, café quality, and café aesthetics.

H2b:

Café usability has a mediating effect on the relation between C’LTY and C’BL.

2.4.1. Experience

Positive feelings from coffee drinking experiences (café experience implied) are related to sensory enjoyment and pleasure [6] and considered elementary for complete quality and satisfaction [33]. In [39], there is a referral to [56], where the measuring of the consumer’s senses, feelings, thoughts, relations, and actions to describe consumption experience is outlined. While the experiences of regular café consumers are based on personal routine activities, those of occasional customers are based on specific and collective purposes.

Five key areas revealed by [57] to deliver more surprise and delight (refer lovability discussed earlier) to customers in coffee shops include: customer service; coffee education; food and drink offering; atmosphere; and community. Additionally, [57] reports that the most important factors for a positive café experience are: coffee quality; staff attitude; comfortable seating; great latte art; and speed of service. These ten elements together relate to the notion of café lovability and are used for measuring café experience in terms of café usability in this research.

This research infers that C’LTY, as a measure of delight and surprise, relates to the experiences of the service and product (café experience); quality of service and product (café quality); and the physical, visual, and emotional aspects of the service and product, represented by product aesthetics (café aesthetics). These considerations are also relative to the factors of the HEART framework.

2.4.2. Quality

The quality of the product is defined by the degree of likelihood of customers enjoying using the product and feeling satisfied, and is hinted at by the KANO model for quality management. Explaining the Pine and Gilmore framework of product quality, Ref. [33] discusses that the economic value (of cafés) progresses with the quality of the product, service, and experience. The quality of the café is often regarded as the basis for revisiting, and it includes the quality of the food, quality of the coffee, and the quality of the experience [7]. The identity of a coffee shop is defined by the quality of the coffee experience, where coziness, layout, comfort, and quality are prominent drivers of café attachment and involvement [33].

Parallel to product lovability [9,31], the quality of experience relates to how the customers develop deep flows with the environment of the café, whereas the quality of the product and services relates to how the customers will feel (either happy, delightful, or satisfied) after visiting the cafés. It is therefore assumed that quality, along with experience and aesthetics (under the umbrella of usability), constitutes people’s lovability perception of cafés, hence the following hypothetical assumptions:

H2c: 

Café lovability is related to café quality, and is higher when café quality is better.

2.4.3. Aesthetics

Aesthetics, considered as one of the key aspects of lovable experiences in café [33,46], offer means for escapism and relaxation. Surrounding oneself with beautiful visuals leaves a pleasant and healing impact [27,58], and they are an integral component of product usability and UI/UX [27,47,50]. Serving specialty coffee is an art [59,60,61] of science. Café aesthetics (C’A) are offered through the overall look and feel of the café; the interior and exterior; the food and latte art; how the staff look and feel; hygiene factors; good or bad smells; counter displays; and the overall design and layout [62,63]. They are comparable to usability heuristics for digital products.

Whether using the guidelines of the KANO model, the HEART framework, or usability heuristics, building aesthetic and appealing designs and features provides factors and measures of delight—both the surface and deep delights. Deeply delightful moments place customers into a state of flow to immerse themselves in a lovable experience [31]. These delightful flows are parallel to the flow dimension of experience in the brand love construct, investigated by [39] for a positive relation with brand love and mediated by hedonic pleasure. It is in these moments that consumers become involved with products at the highest level of focus, gaining their full attention and often making them lose track of time. The more immersed they fell, the greater the brand love becomes., hence the level of engagement, happiness, task success and adoption under the HEART framework for café lovability. This assumption leads to the following hypothesis.

H2d:

Café lovability is positively related to Café Aesthetic.

Providing an aesthetical and quality experience lies in the café’s ability to fulfil the customers’ requisites and create a favorable and enjoyable attachment through engagement and interactions; thus, value co-creation through activities is pivotal for an engaging experience [33]. Creating new and unique experiences for customer happiness and satisfaction in order to drive return visits is centric to innovations at cafés. Additionally, [61] suggests the role of art-based businesses in socio-ecological value creation for better quality of life. They argue that creating deep human–nature relations in the form of emotional reconnections to nature through art (see: coffee art) can provide opportunities for a sustainable lifestyle that emotionally connects with the environment and produces ethical behaviors.

2.5. Café Innovation

With “Gahwa” at the root of the UAE’s tradition and hospitality, innovation and creativity are storming the UAE’s café industry, as is the case with their global counterparts, creating new and unique customer experiences in order to stay relevant in an increasingly crowded market. Luxury ingredients, unusual flavors, and picture-perfect cups are some signs of innovation in cafés that serve specialty coffee [7]. Whether blending sweet and savory tastes in order to make the Salted Caramel Frappe Crème, transforming Karak Chai (Indian spiced tea) into ice creams, or using nitrogen for fluffy cream atop shakes [64], these innovations are becoming increasingly popular.

Boutique cafés take innovation to new heights by eloquently serving artful beverages. Warm and nostalgic coffees; grandma’s healthy turmeric gold milk; luxurious 23-K gold cappuccino; stenciled image on “The selfieccino”; and 3D foamed animals—these are just some of the innovations seen in boutique cafés [64]. Numerous variations provide new value chains and value creations for café business through customer engagement and cocreating innovation. Customers are encouraged to select ingredients, flavors, and artwork. These creations make every cup ready for Instagram posts, generating more like and love interactions on social media, with subsequent expressions of love for the café and coffee [7,19].

2.5.1. Innovation Co-Creation (in Cafés)

Innovation co-creation (InvCC) through the ability and attitude of the staff, along with knowledge creation through coffee education, are pivotal for building lovable and engaging moments at cafés, as well as for customer retention, loyalty, and performance. Café innovation (C’Inv) is not only driven by advancements in equipment and food production, but also through the cocreation of enhanced customer engagement, relationship building, social media communities, and experience as a service [7,33], driving attachment (CaféBL implied) to third place in the list of important measures [63].

Hence, it is considered useful to examine.

Q6: 

“How does innovation in café usability aspects impact café lovability?”

As well as

Q7: 

“How does innovation cocreation impact café lovability?”

As a result, the following hypotheses are made.

H3: 

Café lovability is dependent on café innovation.

H3a: 

Innovation cocreation has a high impact on café lovability.

2.5.2. Sustainability Innovation (in Cafés)

In the literature concerning the café innovation ecosystem, sustainable coffee production, green beans, fair trade labelling, and organic coffee are the popular and most-sought aspects. It is noted and reported that consumers favor specialty coffee with fair trade and green beans over pocket-friendly industrial packages [6,61]. The educational and inclusive environment of coffee houses is an essential factor in the success of specialty cafés, which aim to provide delight and surprise [19,57]. Specialty coffee shops are hubs that create sustainability knowledge and awareness concerning ethical consumption [6], relating aesthetics to sustainability [61], and the circular economy [65,66], playing critical roles as facilitators of sustainability in communities [67].

This research aims to assess whether sustainability innovation has any direct impact on C’LTY, or to find out if it is implied due to other factors of C’Usb. It is anticipated that sustainability innovation does not have much impact on café lovability, considering the former in cafés covers aspects of coffee production, ethical purchasing, economy, or reusable products, none of which are discussed in either brand love or product lovability. Thus, the hypothesis of interest here is

H3b: 

Café lovability is not impacted by sustainability innovation.

3. Methodology

Using a deductive, quantitative approach, a research instrument was designed to collect opinions and behavioral data about individuals who enjoy visiting cafés in order to gain empirical insights into product lovability in cafes and provide opportunity to measure the lovability of a café to support ongoing NPD processes. This also provided an opportunity for a cross-industry comparison of lovable product experiences based on usability and innovation.

A closed-ended questionnaire, comprising of four sets of items and utilizing a seven-point Likert scale [68], was used to measure participants’ opinions about café lovability, café usability, café innovation, and café brand love. Category questions were included to collect participants’ behavior and characteristics for profiling and analyzing data that includes the frequency of café visits, purpose of visit, average expense per visit, and choices that make a particular café favorable over another.

3.1. Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

Drawn from the theories of new product development and minimum lovable products, this research used three constructs (product lovability, product usability, and product innovation) to study café lovability (C’LTY) and the roles of café usability (C’Usb) and café innovation (C’Inv), respectively. It devised a measure for café lovability based on Google’s HEART framework for producing lovable product experiences through measuring the micro-moments of the customers’ levels of happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success while using a product or service (cafés in this context).

This research also referred to the parallel construct of brand love [38,42,49] in the domains of business strategy and marketing for the purpose of validating the C’LTY measurement using café brand love (C’BL). While café brand love (C’BL) is the subjective customer–brand relationship, driven by human interpersonal love relationships, café lovability (C’LTY) is an objective characteristic of a café, composing the degree to which cafés are loved and seen as lovable by the customers. The latter is based on the practice of agile product management to develop minimum lovable products, which in turn relates to the concepts of lean product development and quality management [31].

Aesthetics, engagement, and innovation are considered the primary services of cafés today, along with the essentials of coffee and food, in the construction of an excellent experience [33]. These are also the key elements in developing engaging product experiences in digital- and technology-driven products and services. Despite the growth and popularity of the product development and product innovation concepts, the epistemology of minimum lovable products and product lovability is undefined in the existing literature and scientific research. Selected practitioners and entrepreneurs, such as [9,27,28,31], have contributed to the body of knowledge; however, their studies are not fully grounded in data.

This research therefore finds an opportunity to devise a measure of product lovability for the café industry and contributes to developing the contemporary literature and knowledge of product lovability by virtue of product innovation and usability. In addition, it adds to the existing knowledge of innovation, customer experience, and sustainability through café sustainability innovation and café sustainability knowledge; as a result, it adds new insights for sustainable and product lovability-orientated business growth and marketing strategies.

This research also situates and fills gaps in current academic research in the coffee and café industries, which mostly focuses on sustainable coffee production, the quality of service and experience, but is very limited in terms of sustainability innovation, innovation cocreation, and sustainability knowledge in relation to café experience and fostering healthy relations with customers based on positive feelings.

By extending the possibility of using the concept of product lovability in creating lovable café experiences for business growth and customer relationship building in a contemporary way, this research also contributes to the HEART framework [35] in academic research by extending the knowledge and validation of the framework outside digital applications, providing a means to measure product lovability in cafés, understand customers levels of engagement and delight during café visits, and contribute to the knowledge concerning how to devise lovable café experiences. The expected outcome of the research is the café heart model, used to measure the degree of café lovability and provide an understanding of the key variables that impact café lovability.

3.2. Model for Café Lovability (C’LTY)

To find evidence for H1, the research model formed the café heart framework based on the guidelines for Google’s HEART [35] in order to study positive covariations among five dimensions—happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success. The collective measurement of these variables with positive covariant relations was expected to indicate the level of C’LTY and provide evidence for H1 (H1a and H1b) and suggest using the resulting café heart framework to measure product lovability in cafés.

The instrument used to measure C’LTY was designed using a 10-item scale, with two items each of the five dimensions of HEART. Items for measuring the five dimensions of C’LTY were adapted from the literature of coffee consumption and café experiences [33,46,68,69,70]; coffee industry standards and commercial research on coffee and cafés [57,71]; coffee shop design; brand love [43]; usability [46,47]; and lovable product experiences [25,27,28,31].

Happiness (H) measured the level of delight and satisfaction participants experienced during a visit to a favorite café [8]. Engagement (E) assessed customers level of engagement in café, represented by number of hours spent at the café and interactions with the café staff [46,72]. Adoption (A) of the café was tested by measuring the willingness of the customer to adopt and try new food options and services, as well as the willingness of the customers’ (participants) friends and family to visit, which was an indication of new customers going to the café [59].

Retention (R) measured the return of customers to a café in adverse or best situations and was denominated by items such as a life-long visit without loyalty or making an extra effort to visit the café [7,73]. Finally, task success (T) of the C’LTY measure is the ability to complete the task of finishing the ordered food and drink with ease, as well as the level of achievement felt in visiting the café.

All the items were measured with respect to ‘most’ or ‘all’ visits by participants. The named favorite café as well as the number of visits were important metrics in measuring the concept of customer retention through revisits or repurchases [7,39].

Findings from measuring café lovability were further investigated for possible impacts of product usability and product innovation aspects on café lovability and café brand love. The concept of of café lovability (C’LTY) was explored and defined by examining relations between five variables—happiness (H), engagement (E), adoption (A), retention (R), and task success (TS)—with the aim of finding a strong correlation between them; the collective outcome was the C’LTY variable, which was validated by virtue of a strong positive correlation with C’BL. Figure 1 shows the conceptual café lovability base model with all the variables.

To test and validate the outcome of the HEART framework for C’LTY, the resulting C’LTY was compared and tested for a correlation with C’BL through the participants’ responses about personal attachments with the café. C’BL is measured using three items from Carroll and Ahuvia’s brand love scale: responsibility towards café image; self-identity integration; and expression of love for a café [38,43]. This is for the purpose of testing H1c. A positive covariant relation would provide the validation and reliability of the H1a and H1b findings to indicate the significance of using and adapting the HEART framework for measuring C’LTY.

3.3. Model for Studying Roles of Usability and Innovation in C’LTY

The second model of this research, Figure 2, was designed to examine the roles of usability and innovation in C’LTY for H2 and H3. The resulting C’LTY variable from the Café HEART model, Figure 1, along with the measured C’BL are two dependent variables further evaluated in this second research model, Figure 2, and have two latent, independent variables: (1) café usability (C’Usb), comprising of three observed variables—café experience (C’XP), café aesthetics (C’A), and café quality (C’Q); and (2) café innovation (C’Inv), comprising of three observed variables—innovation cocreation (InvCC), sustainability innovation (InvSust), and sustainability knowledge (Sust_Kldg).

The model examined the relation between C’LTY (measured from HEART), C’Usb, C’Inv, and C’BL by testing H2 and H3. The research instrument included additional sets of items for each latent variable and the relevant observed variables. Café usability (C’Usb) was tested by virtue of measuring ‘experience,’ ‘quality’ and ‘aesthetics’.

Café experience (C’XP) was evaluated by devising a seven-item scale. Five items of experience are the top five experience factors reported by The Barista Magazine [57], with one item each for staff attitude, comfort, coffee quality, latte art, and speed of service. The other two items of experience—the ease of use and avoid error and ease of remembering—were adapted from Nielsen’s usability heuristics [55].

Café quality (C’Q) was tested by adapting items of service quality (SQ), coffee/tea quality (CTQ), and food quality (FQ), with two items each [7,33,59]. The overall quality of the café is the collective effect of the SQ, CTQ, and FQ, and it was studied to validate the testing of H2a along with the impact of the SQ and CTQ on C’BL and C’LTY as part of H2b and H2c.

Café aesthetics (C’A) were tested using the participants’ expressions about the internal and external look as well as feel of the café. The six items for internal aesthetics and three items for external aesthetic scales were adapted from [33,46,61], coffee shop design, along with one additional item each for user bias verification (using negative question for external aesthetic). The combined effect of the internal and external aesthetic represents the overall aesthetic experience and was studied to test H2d for the possible impact on café lovability under the construct of café usability.

Café innovation (C’Inv) was examined by defining three items to record the participant’s opinion about sustainable options and the green initiatives the café provides under sustainability innovation, based on dimensions of sustainability and specialty coffee as well as four items used to measure the co-creation options offered by the café to customers as part of delivering an innovative coffee experience. The seven items are devised based on the literature on specialty coffee and café consumption behaviors [6,46,71,72]. The sustainability element of innovation was hypothesized not to have a significant impact on café lovability (H3b), while the co-creation aspect was assumed to have a strong impact and correlation with café lovability as well as love for the café (H3a).

The questionnaire titled “Extremely Enjoyable and Lovable Cafés–Aesthetics, Experience & Innovation” was chosen to prompt participants to think about cafés they enjoy and love. After a short test study, a brief definition of cafés was added in the introduction to resolve participant confusion. Anonymous participants who confirmed their consent were asked to enter the name of their most favorite café in their country of residence. This question aimed to encourage participants to think about the café during the process; ensure conscious decisions during the response about love and the enjoyment of visiting the café; increase the likelihood of unbiased choices; and to keep participants engaged during the questionnaire. Post-survey remarks from participants indicated experiences of interest and enjoyment after completing the questionnaire.

Profiling and demographic questions were collected in two stages. One at the beginning of the survey, as they focused on defining and understanding the participant–restaurant relationship through predefined category questions about the frequency of visits to the café [73]; the purpose of visit; the average amount being spent [57]; and whether participants “love” or “like” the café named in the survey [38,39].

The instrument also included list questions about the top three favorite choices [57]. The remaining demographic category questions for age group, gender, nationality, country of residence, and organization type were kept at the very end of the survey, indicating the final steps and closure of the survey.

4. Data Collection and Analysis

During an intermittent period of four months, data were collected from a sample size of 200–250 people, representing a target population of size c.8M (18–60 years old), comprising residents of the UAE that were 18+ years, male or female, working or non-working, and who visited cafés and had a personal favorite café that they loved and enjoyed visiting.

A combination of different sampling methods based on cluster sampling (nationality and geographic location); stratified sampling (based on role, interest, and age); and the purposive, heterogenous sampling approach was applied to reach out to the target sample size of 200–250 through in-person and group messages on WhatsApp and LinkedIn and was based on previously known attitudes and behaviors of target cases with respect to cafés. A snowball sampling approach was applied to propagate the questionnaire through first-degree known participants and contacts. All participants in this study provided their free and informed consent.

Through a self-selection approach, participants were invited to participate in the café experience survey by posting to targeted café, coffee, and tea followers on LinkedIn and Facebook using the hashtags #Coffeelovers, #Cafe, #Tealovers, and #CafeLove. The self-administered online questionnaire was designed and hosted on surveymonkey.com (accessed on 15 November 2022).

A total of 266 participations were received, with a 62% completion rate. After removing incomplete participations, 165 valid cases were available for evaluation. From the valid data set, 54% were female and 46% male. A total of 80.8% resided in the UAE. From the UAE-based participants, the UAE citizen/expatriate division was 17%/83%, with the majority being Asian expats followed MENA expats and Europe, the US, Canada, and the Pacific. This sample is a close representation of the UAE population [74].

Top reasons reported for visiting the café were “personal time out” (29%), “social outing (21%)”, and “eat out with family” (19%); thus, almost 70% intended to visit cafés for leisure and pleasure, despite the rising remote work culture at cafés. Almost 50% reported weekly (32%) or several visits to their selected favorite café per month, with most spending an average amount of $10–$50 per visit. From the initial set of profiling items, there was a 50–50 split between declaring love for a café, with 48.8% saying they ‘absolutely love this café’, 46% ‘like café but not love’, and almost 5% being unsure whether they love or like the café. This study purposefully did not include a hate or dislike option, as it focused on favorite cafés, and thus a positive relation was assumed. This initial division between a feeling of love versus simply liking a café among participants was used for a reliability check of the results from H1.

5. Results

Data were analyzed in SPSS for performing exploratory analysis, CMV, scale reliability for overall data; an ANOVA, t-test, KMO, and Bartlett’s test were used for H1; AMOS was used for performing structural equation modeling analysis for the Café HEART model as part of H1a, H1b, and H1c as well as H2 and H3 and for the overall conceptual framework of this research. Data across most variables were normally distributed. Some items showed skewness and kurtosis in distribution; such distribution was brought close to normal after the removal of outliers that existed due to bad data choices, thus reducing the final valid cases count to 103.

5.1. H1—HEART for Café Lovability

The scale reliability test of the 10-item Café HEART scale shows a Cronbach’s alpha score of 0.824, with a positive mean inter-item correlation and mean inter-item covariance of 0.34 and 0.49, respectively.

Table 1. HEART framework–group correlations.

Group Correlations for C’LTY HEART Framework			Estimated ‘r’
Happiness	<-->	Engagement	0.78
Engagement	<-->	Adoption	0.86
Adoption	<-->	Retention	0.535
Retention	<-->	Task success	0.58
Happiness	<-->	Adoption	0.589
Happiness	<-->	Retention	0.714
Happiness	<-->	Task success	0.696
Engagement	<-->	Retention	0.813
Engagement	<-->	Task success	0.439
Adoption	<-->	Task success	0.408

shows a positive group covariant relation among all variables within the HEART framework. As more than 50% of the group correlations are above 0.5, there exist high correlations among variables, hence H1a is accepted.

Highest correlations are implied as being due to happiness, engagement, and retention collectively. Engagement has a correlation of 0.81 with retention, and 0.86 with adoption. Happiness has correlations of 0.78 and 0.71 with engagement and retention, respectively. These results provide insights for H1b, showing that the effects of E, A, and R together create H and T individually. It may be observed that the presence of engagement and retention in comparison to adoption results in higher covariance with H than with TS. Adoption in general shows a lower covariant relation with H and TS. These observations provide indication for the partial acceptance of H1b, which requires further testing.

Also,

Table 2. HEART model summary results (From SPSS).

Summary Item Statistics
	Mean	Minimum	Maximum	Range	Maximum/ Minimum	Variance	N of Items
Item means	5.546	4.897	6.030	1.133	1.231	0.167	10
Item variances	1.551	0.761	2.776	2.015	3.646	0.461	10
Inter-item covariances	0.495	0.125	1.034	0.909	8.268	0.037	10
Inter-item correlations	0.346	0.069	0.652	0.583	9.464	0.014	10

shows the summary items statistics.

The overall HEART model results from both the ANOVA and Hotelling’s T-Squared tests show relational significance with a p value < 0.001, along with a PCA cumulative factor loading of 41.6% for a single factor. Model fit results from the KMO and Bartlett’s test show a sampling adequacy of 0.82 (above 0.5) and Sphericity relation significance of <0.001. SEM generating a CFI value of 0.963 further assures the model fit. The results (as in Figure 3) provide evidence for the validity of the HEART framework in measuring café lovability. The computing means from all five of the variables will provide the resulting value of C’LTY and the café heart model. See Appendix A for the complete scale item statistics.

H1 Validation—Café Lovability and Café Brand Love

To further confirm whether C’LTY reflects and relates to C’BL, the strength of relation between the two variables is assessed. With a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.869, mean inter-correlation of 0.69, and mean inter-covariance of 1.51, the scale measuring CʹBL is considered reliable and robust in the context of this study.

Comparing C’LTY with CʹBL through linear regression shows a strong covariant relation, with the Pearson coefficient r being 0.65 (

Table 3. CLTY and CBL correlations (From SPSS).

Correlations
		CafeBL Mean	Café Lovability Mean
CaféBL mean	Pearson correlation	1	0.651 **
	Sig. (1-tailed)		0.000
	Sum of squares and cross-products	280.382	103.034
	Covariance	1.742	0.640
	N	162	162
CaféLovability mean	Pearson correlation	0.651 **	1
	Sig. (1-tailed)	0.000
	Sum of squares and cross-products	103.034	89.345
	Covariance	0.640	0.555
	N	162	162

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).

); the ANOVA results between C’LTY and CʹBL show a significant relation, with a p value < 0.001 (

Table 4. CLTY and CBL ANOVA test results.

ANOVA a
Model		Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	Sig.
1	Regression	41.734	1	41.734	119.899	0.000 b
	Residual	56.736	163	0.348
	Total	98.470	164

^a. Dependent variable: café lovability mean; ^b. Predictors: (Constant), CafeBL mean.

), and a CFI value of 0.938 for the model fit test, leading us to accept H1c and subsequently H1. This study therefore validates using Google’s HEART framework to measure café lovability, as all latent and observed variables are correlated to CʹBL with positive covariance, reflecting the existence of customers’ love towards their cafés. See Appendix A for complete scale items statistics for C’LTY and C’BL, respectively.

Additionally,

Table 5. C’LTY and C’BL group regression results (From AMOS).

Group regression results Café Lovabilty (CLTY) and Brand Love of Café (CafeBL)
	Co Variance	Correlation
	CaféBL Mean	CaféBL Mean
CaféBL mean	1.731	1
Clove	1.662	0.98
Visit freq	−0.381	−0.203
Clovability (CLTY)	0.548	0.741
Retention mean	0.869	0.556
Adoption mean	0.548	0.389
ENG mean	0.808	0.501
Happiness mean	0.538	0.54
TaskSucc mean	0.431	0.402

shows the observed variables of CʹLTY, engagement (ENG mean) and retention (retention mean) have very strong covariance and correlation with CʹBL, which corresponds to Google’s HEART model, where the collective effect of users’ engagement, adoption, and retention describes the lovability of the product, and confirms previous observations of H1b, leading to the partial acceptance of H1b. The overall CʹLTY has a significant correlation of 0.65 using SPSS (Table 3) and 0.74 using AMOS (Table 5) with C’BL, having a positive covariance of 0.548. Another key observation is the negative correlation and covariance of the frequency of visits, which suggests that C’LTY and C’BL are opposing to frequency of visits.

5.2. H2, H3–Usability, Innovation, and Model Fitness

Exploratory analysis and scale validation for CʹUsb and CʹInv is performed individually (within each group) and then compared using SEM analysis to acquire the impact on C’LTY and C’BL. CʹUsb is reflected as a mean value of café experience (CʹXP), quality (CʹQ), and aesthetic (CʹA). Internal linear regression analysis within each of the observed variables—CʹXP, CʹQ, and CʹA—shows significant correlation with positive medium covariance (

Table 6. Café usability group covariance.

	Café Usability Group Covariance
	CʹUsb	CʹXP	CʹQ	CʹA.Int	CʹA.Ext
CʹUsb	0.36	0.322	0.36	0.4	0.33
CʹXP	0.322	0.413	0.322	0.358	0.295
CʹA.Int	0.4	0.358	0.4	0.665	0.367
CʹA.Ext	0.33	0.295	0.33	0.367	0.86
CʹQ	0.36	0.322	0.613	0.4	0.33

). Cronbach’s alpha for each scale is close to 0.8, reflecting the acceptable validity of the scales.

Additionally, the overall Cronbach alpha for the usability scale with combined dimensions from all observed variables is 0.899. KMO sampling adequacy is 0.877, and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity and Goodness-of-fit tests show p values of <0.001, while the cumulative % of factor loadings for the maximum likelihood is 37.8% for a single factor. These results suggest the viability of the scale in measuring café usability and suggest the acceptance of H2a, or C’Usb as a measure of CʹXP, CʹQ, and CʹA when measuring café quality and aesthetics) See Appendix A for the complete scale items statistics for C’Usb.

Cafe’ innovation (CʹInv) results from the means of café cocreation (C’CC) and café sustainability (CʹSust), having an overall Cronbach’s alpha of 0.85 for the collective items scale, and a significant mean inter-item correlation of 0.46 with a strong positive mean inter-item covariance of 1.0. The SEM results show the significance of the overall conceptual model (see Figure 4), with a p value < 0.001 and a CFI value of 0.901, providing evidence for model acceptance. The overall regression weights indicate a significant relation between C’LTY and C’Usb as well as C’Inv and C’BL, having p values < 0.05 and SE values of 0.103, 0.061, and 0.69, respectively.

C’LTY shows significant correlation with C’Usb, with p < 0.001 and a regression weight of 0.76, providing significant evidence to accept H2 for the strong covariant relation between C’LTY and C’Usb. Findings provide evidence of a relatively weak covariant relation between C’LTY and C’Inv, with a regression weight of 0.16, a p value of 0.007, and the existence of a direct positive impact of C’Inv on C’LTY. Hence, we suggest the partial acceptance of H3 for the dependence of C’LTY on C’Inv due to the weak covariant relation. In the case of C’BL, the direct impact of C’Inv is insignificant, having a p value > 0.07, whereas C’Usb shows an inverse and insignificant direct impact on C’BL, with a p value of −0.23.

5.2.1. Mediation of Café Usability

The estimated model shows evidence of C’Usb mediating the relation between C’LTY and C’BL, with a positive standardized direct effect on C’LTY (0.8) and positive standardized indirect effect on C’BL (0.7), hence suggesting that we “accept H2b”. C’Usb also has indirect effects on the observed variables of C’BL and C’LTY, as shown in

Table 7. Standardized direct and indirect effects.

	Standardized Direct Effects				Standardized Indirect Effects
	Innovation	Cusb	CLovability	CaféBL	Innovation	Cusb	CLovability	CafeBL
CUsb	0.549	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Clovability	0.219	0.79	0	0	0.434	0	0	0
CaféBL	0.107	−0.233	0.896	0	0.458	0.708	0	0
Café brand love (CaféBL)
CBL responsibility	0	0	0	0.848	0.479	0.403	0.76	0
CBL love cafe	0	0	0	0.763	0.431	0.363	0.684	0
CBL self-identity	0	0	0	0.896	0.506	0.426	0.802	0
Café innovation
Inv Sust Kldg	0.883	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inv Sust	0.775	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Inv CC	0.611	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Café usability
Ub Exp mean	0	0.835	0	0	0.459	0	0	0
Asth Int	0	0.818	0	0	0.449	0	0	0
Asth Ext	0	0.593	0	0	0.326	0	0	0
Qlty cafe	0	0.767	0	0	0.421	0	0	0
Café lovability
Happiness mean	0	0	0.762	0	0.498	0.602	0	0
ENG mean	0	0	0.645	0	0.421	0.51	0	0
Adoption mean	0	0	0.535	0	0.349	0.423	0	0
Retention mean	0	0	0.703	0	0.459	0.556	0	0
TaskSucc mean	0	0	0.602	0	0.393	0.476	0	0

Direct and indirect mediating effects of C’Usb and C’Inv on the relationship of C’LTY and C’BL, indicating net-positive mediating effects.

, which displays an estimated model with regression weights. C’Usb has the highest indirect effect on happiness, engagement, and retention, further supporting our earlier discussion concerning how H, E, and R collectively account for C’LTY. It can be inferred that higher usability triggers happiness, engagement, and retention at cafés, leading to attributes of café lovability.

In the evaluation of the observed variables C’Usb and C’Inv (

Table 8. Café usability and café innovation group covariance.

	Correlation				Covariance
	Innovation	CUsb Exp	CLovability	Café Love	Innovation	CUsb Exp	CLovability	Café Love
Innovation	1				0.599
CUsb Exp	0.549	1			0.255	0.36
CLovability	0.653	0.911	1		0.292	0.315	0.333
Café brand love	0.565	0.642	0.754	1	0.435	0.383	0.433	0.989
Café brand Love
CBL responsibility	0.479	0.545	0.64	0.848	0.578	0.51	0.576	1.315
CBL love cafe	0.431	0.49	0.576	0.763	0.435	0.383	0.433	0.989
CBL self-identity	0.506	0.575	0.675	0.896	0.61	0.538	0.608	1.388
Café innovation
Inv Sust Kldg	0.883	0.485	0.577	0.499	0.902	0.384	0.439	0.655
Inv Sust	0.775	0.426	0.506	0.438	0.766	0.326	0.373	0.555
Inv CC	0.611	0.335	0.399	0.345	0.599	0.255	0.292	0.435
Café usability
Asth Int	0.449	0.818	0.745	0.525	0.283	0.4	0.351	0.426
Asth Ext	0.326	0.593	0.54	0.381	0.234	0.33	0.289	0.351
Qlty Café	0.421	0.767	0.698	0.492	0.255	0.36	0.315	0.383
Ub Exp mean	0.459	0.835	0.761	0.536	0.228	0.322	0.282	0.343
Café lovability
Happiness mean	0.498	0.694	0.762	0.575	0.292	0.315	0.333	0.433
ENG mean	0.421	0.587	0.645	0.487	0.4	0.432	0.457	0.593
Adoption mean	0.349	0.487	0.535	0.404	0.29	0.313	0.331	0.43
Retention mean	0.459	0.64	0.703	0.53	0.423	0.457	0.482	0.627
TaskSucc mean	0.393	0.548	0.602	0.454	0.248	0.268	0.283	0.368

C’Usb and C’Inv correlation and covariance with C’LTY shows a relatively higher covariance with C’Inv.

), it is noted that although overall C’Usb shows a significant impact on C’LTY, and the individual components of C’Usb have significant correlation, they individually have weak positive covariance with C’LTY. H2d is accepted based on the positive relation and covariance of C’LTY with both internal and external aesthetics; however, the relation is not very strong, with covariance values of 0.35 and 0.28 (Table 8), respectively. Similarly, C’Q with a weak positive covariance of 0.31 (Table 8) has a significant positive correlation of 0.7 with C’LTY, suggesting the acceptance of H2c.

5.2.2. Mediation of Café Innovation

There appears to be a mediating effect of C’Inv on the relations between C’LTY and C’BL, with positive direct effects on C’LTY (0.2) and C’BL (0.1), along with indirect effects on both C’LTY (0.4) and C’BL (0.45), referring to Table 7. The total effects of 0.6 and 0.5 on C’LTY and C’BL, respectively, provide evidence to “accept H3”. C’Inv also mediates the relation between C’LTY and C’Usb, with total standardized effects of (0.65) and (0.54), respectively; it also has indirect positive effects on the external observed variables of C’BL, C’Usb, and C’LTY (Table 7).

Examining the respective observed variables of C’Inv (Table 8) shows positive covariant relations with C’LTY. The positive covariant relation between InvCC and C’LTY provides evidence to accept H3a; existence of a similar relation between C’LTY and Inv Sust (including sustainability knowledge) leads us to reject H3b, which assumed that café lovability was not impacted by innovation sustainability (Inv Sust) in cafés. It should be noted that Inv Sust Kldg with a single item was treated outside the Inv Sust variable and observed individually. The overall H3 hypothesis is therefore partially accepted, with insufficient evidence for H3b.

Comparing the correlations and covariances of all observed variables of C’Usb and C’Inv, it is seen that although C’Usb and its observed variables have relatively higher correlation with C’LTY, C’LTY has a higher covariant relation with C’Inv, particularly Inv Sust Kldg. It is also observed that both C’Usb and C’Inv have slightly higher covariance with C’BL as compared to C’LTY.

6. Discussion

This study evaluates the possibility of measuring lovable product experiences in cafés by utilizing a technology-focused framework (HEART introduced by Google) that provides measures for user happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, and task success. The purpose of adapting and extending the HEART framework originally devised for digital products with the aim of building lovable experiences at cafés is the contextual similarities between the café as a product and as a digital product, with ease-of-use, aesthetics, quality, task-based success, satisfaction, more time spent, and low error rates all being considered [35,75].

Fierce competition due to technology and innovations that have shaken up the café industry and food industry at large, the specialty coffee culture, and high customer demands immediately prompt ongoing data collection, measurement, and monitoring of user behaviors and requirements for continuous product development and enhancements in cafés, keeping the customer at the core of the café experience. Additionally, with the ongoing surge in the gig economy, digital nomadism, sustainable consumption behaviors, and workplace culture transformation, cafés serve as popular destinations for digital nomads and hybrid workforces, as well as being sustainability developers [67]. This in turn would require new-age customers to achieve a “deep-flow” moment to successfully complete a desired task, accomplish a work deadline, attend a virtual meeting, or generate a new idea for a particular product launch.

For cafés to build such indulging, deep-flow moments for customers to achieve success would therefore require them to: (1) understand what constitutes such a deep flow moment for the customer; (2) measure and monitor deep flow moment data; and (3) create, maintain, and enhance such moments by involving the customer in the process. Such an indulgent and focused moment in the user process is found in the literature on product quality and customer experience and is referred to in the KANO quality model as well as the contemporary practice of “minimum lovable products”.

This research paper therefore extends the notion of building lovable products from digital apps and products to traditional physical spaces, where they are thus consumed in contemporary styles. The results from evaluating the HEART framework validate and support the extension of the metrics to be used in cafés (a physical space) and provides confirmatory suggestions to measure the “Café Lovability” factor using the 10-item scale devised in this study (a number is given between 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest possible measure). The resulting café lovability value will be the extent to which a café can be considered lovable by the customer, an experience and feeling that is comparable to brand love and hedonic love toward physical spaces such as the café, resulting in strong positive emotions, psychological and social associations, and enhancement of mood and performance.

To further understand the newly defined concept of café lovability and the café HEART framework used to measure café lovability, with reference to new product development within cafés, two key concepts and success factors for building lovable product experiences—usability and innovation—within the context of cafés were examined for their association with café lovability.

Results indicate that café lovability is expected to increase in the presence of more usability and product innovation in relation to cafés, particularly usability by virtue of café aesthetics, especially internal aesthetics and café quality, both of which are key elements in building successful new products. This study shows that involving and engaging customers in innovation creation in/at cafés aids in building a more lovable café experience; hence, this study supports the theory of building customer-centric lovable products.

These findings support the previous studies of [75] that provided an innovation co-creation strategic framework for NPD that showed entrepreneurs consider the co-creation of innovation as beneficial to customer experience, customer commitment, and in creating competitive offerings; thus, it is essential to include innovation co-creation in the process of new product development and lovable product experiences.

7. Limitation and Further Research

Studying concepts of product lovability and product usability and the use of the HEART framework to measure the former, outside technology products are first of their kind. Certain limitations due to the sampling and instrument design are possible in the results. Considering the invite to be released to a wider sample, including social media groups, may be beneficial, as some participants were outside the UAE. While this is not the primary scope of this research, this provides an opportunity to compare the behavior and attitude of external participants with those from the UAE, with respect to C’LTY, and provides means for additional insight. Future research covering international- and national-level comparisons could help understand how the concept of café lovability travels across continents.

The scale items of the resulting café HEART model (measuring café lovability) are adapted and defined based on the existing works about café experiences and the coffee industry. Standardizing metrics used for these variables and constructs in cafés and non-technology product experiences require repetitive ongoing quantitative research and theory formation of lovable products and café experiences. Hence, retesting the emerging café heart framework for significance is essential. Furthermore, qualitative interviews; and focus groups with café owners, senior managers, as well as employees would further support scale and metrics validations. Additionally, as the study supports H1b only partially, this hypothesis requires further investigation, and an impact assessment of the factors of café HEART model needs to be undertaken.

From a pragmatic standpoint, measuring café HEART variables based on customer input or observations from customers on an ongoing basis, may create operational and financial overhead for cafés if the purpose of building a lovable (café) experience is not strategically defined and not significantly evident to improve ROI. Hence, this creates an opportunity to investigate in future whether or how lovable cafes can improve café ROI and sales growth.

With café culture changing and technology adoption in café operations, capturing useful data about customers’ visits to cafés and the use of machine learning algorithms to calculate and predict café love have the potential to be the next big steps in experience building for cafés. However, such investments require strategic alignment and capital investment before contributing to the flat white economy.

The intricate conceptual model of the research comprises of four latent variables and twelve observed variables. While studying all these variables is considered essential in the current scope of the study due to the overlapping aspects of product lovability, product usability, and product innovation, it limited the number of items per variable in the study. Despite this limitation, the previous testing of these items in other relevant studies added to the degree of reliability in terms of the scale and construct, and they have been validated from the scale validation tests. Future studies focusing on café usability and café innovation with given variables along with possible additional items for validation will support in providing further confirmation and significance to the findings of this research.

With cafés taking an active role in sustainability development [67], understanding the association between café lovability and sustainability in future studies is an interesting avenue. Although this research did not provide significant evidence to accept H3b, due to the higher covariance and correlation between sustainability innovation and café lovability, it provides new constructs and variables to test in terms of sustainability and café product lovability. There is an opportunity to further reconstruct the research so that it focuses on sustainable innovation and innovation knowledge creation in the context of lovable cafés. Such focused research will be able to identify the role of knowledge creation in sustainable innovation in relation to the notions of café lovability, café innovation, and café innovation co-creation. Hence, such research will explore if product lovability is driven by innovation, usability, or brand love within and outside the context of café.

Furthermore, studies exploring and understanding café lovability; product lovability by virtue of usability (aesthetics, quality, and experience) and innovation (co-creation, innovation sustainability, and sustainability knowledge) in the specialized contexts of the circular economy, food waste, ethical consumption, eco-friendly production, triple-bottom line, sustainable farming, green economy; as well as human–nature connections through product aesthetics, are some avenues for qualitative and quantitative research in the future.

This research provides discussion and evidence that lead to the understanding that in business practice, the notion of brand love is either evolving into product love or the two are separate yet related to the feelings of customers. Brand love depicts an overarching strategic customer–business synergy, whereas product love indicates an intense product-specific psychological relationship between the customer and business. Henceforth, an opportunity to contribute to the future literature by studying and drawing comparisons between the two arises. Retesting the framework of café lovability in other industries and service-led businesses (with relevant adjustments) will provide more robust evidence for the model.

Accounting for the trend of the co-workspace in café culture that makes cafés the favorite destinations of digital nomads; and studying the moderating and mediating roles of café culture, workplace culture, co-workspaces, social identity, the café community as well as post COVID-19 pandemic scenarios, will enable us to understand and define the notion of the human–café interface from the perspective of product lovability.

8. Conclusions

Behind the experience of enjoying great late art lies the intricate processes of coffee cultivation, brewing, training, and serving the art that results in a perfect cup of coffee. From the quality of the beans to sustainable production, the aesthetics involved in presenting to taking comfort in the surroundings, there are many aspects involved in making cafés lovable, which in turn produces deep engagement, repeat visits, and successful turnover at cafés. This research attempted to explore, examine, and define the notion of café lovability within the context of café usability, café innovation, and café brand love.

The essence of this research is the comparison of the café (as product) to a technology-driven user interface and product, using the concepts of the minimum lovable product and product lovability from the practice of new product development, particularly in relation to digital products. This research visualizes the café as a digital user interface and applies the concepts of usability and product lovability to measure café lovability—the degree to which a café is lovable. The higher the lovability factor, the more customers it will attract and engage, which in turn will produce better results for the business. This study proposes a model to measure café lovability and explores the roles of café usability and café innovation, supported by the brand love theory from the marketing research literature. This provides an objective measure of the potential lovable cafés could have for building successful café businesses and experiences.

Results show significant evidence for using the resulting café heart model adapted from the Google’s HEART model for the purpose of measuring café lovability, indicating a positive covariant relation between café usability, café innovation, and café lovability. It suggests that café lovability is the measure of customers’ levels of happiness while at a café; it also explores engagement—the degree of involvement with café; adoption—how quickly and deep customers embrace café services; retention— if the customers return or not; and finally, task success level of the café. The resulting café heart model is validated using café brand love (from brand love theory), supporting the relevance between measured café lovability and customers’ brand love. A strong covariant relation between café lovability and café brand love along with significant model fit suggests the café heart model is suitable for measuring café lovability.

Furthermore, the research findings suggest the existence of a relation between café lovability, café usability, café innovation, and café brand love. Café usability, a measure of café experience, cafe quality, and café aesthetics, not only has a positive covariant relation with café lovability, but also mediates the relation between café lovability and café brand love. Café usability also shows the effects (indirect) on the happiness, engagement, and retention dimensions of café lovability, leading to the conclusion that cafés with higher usability aspects by virtue of internal aesthetics, café quality, and user experience, create stronger feelings of happiness, engagement, and retention among customers, developing a sense of emotional attachment in the form of café love, ultimately making the café in question more lovable.

Additionally, café innovation has a positive covariant relation with café lovability and mediates the effect on café lovability. While both café innovation and café usability have an almost equal mediating effect on café lovability and café love, the former possesses relatively stronger covariance with both café lovability and café love. This study, however, could not find any association between café lovability and sustainable innovation, as initially hypothesized, providing grounds for future research. The single item variable, innovation sustainability knowledge, shows the highest covariance relation with café lovability, and thus requires further exploration. While the variable could have merged with sustainability innovation, it was left unchanged during analysis to explore and further evaluate the variable.

Figure 5 shows the overall summary of the hypotheses and results originating from tests using the SEM analysis.

Although the current research population is based in the UAE and MENA region, the instrument that was designed using items and variables from other related research outside the MENA shows similar outcomes for the individual variables such as café quality, café aesthetics, and café brand love. This provides grounds for executing a cross-study approach to further test the overall research model, the café heart model for cafe lovability, as well as individual scales for café usability and café innovation outside the UAE and in the café industry generally. Moreover, our study also shows the applicability of prior-studied variables in the café industries within the UAE and MENA.