Pouring a Superior Experience in Coffee Machines
When Joshua Wilkie joined Keurig Dr Pepper, the company was already recognized for its innovation in the beverage industry. However, its next challenge was brewing: how to provide a premium, brand-rich user experience across a wide range of coffee machine products.
Wilkie is an experienced UI developer with over 15 years working with Qt, mainly on teleconferencing systems and medical devices. He was hired to lead the GUI development. “Keurig did not have much experience with Qt,” he recalls. “They had a big, new, impressive GUI, and that’s essentially what I came in for.”
Whenever I get a chance or need to build a GUI, Qt is always the natural choice. It’s been that way since I started years ago, and even today, Qt remains the go-to UI framework for embedded systems, says Joshua Wilkie.
His first project at Keurig was ambitious: the K-4500 is a high-end brewer with a 10-inch screen that can play high-quality videos and dynamically adjust to the inserted K-Cup. “Keurig really values marketing and branding,” Wilkie explains. “One main requirement was that we wanted to have videos playing when it’s idle, to attract people to walk up to the machine.”
I really like QML and how easy it is to connect things to the backend and properties. It makes things super simple. And the speed with which QML allows you to put things together—once you get the hang of it, it's just fast, continues Wilkie.
The system also had to recognize over 500 K-Cup varieties and display brand-specific visuals and messaging. “It figures out what it is and shows you a picture of what you just put in, and even a whole background—a beautiful Dunkin’ Donuts or Pete’s Coffee or Lavazza,” he says. “It’s great for those brands, because they get to display their marketing assets and personalize the experience.”
A Framework That Fits Every Cup
Joshua and the Keurig team received all the support they needed to set up Qt with their previous toolchain, which also included IAR Embedded Workbench. Thanks to Qt for MCUs and Qt Design Studio, Qt has become the foundation of the new Keurig K-4500 UI.
With Qt for MCUs, you can really dial down Qt’s features and keep it lightweight, which is extremely valuable on microcontrollers. I believe many people never thought you could run a serious GUI on a microcontroller. You can essentially do the same things as on a powerful processor, but at a fraction of the cost, says Wilkie.
Keurig also uses Qt Design Studio to improve the handoff between designers and developers. The UI design is created in Figma and then exported as code that can be used directly. This makes it easier to track changes and make adjustments.
Our designers hand off code from Figma, not static files. I don't have to dig through PDFs or figure out specifics like measurements or colors. That makes it easier for me to make changes and adapt quickly, explains Wilkie.
Additionally, Qt supports MQTT for inter-process communication in the Keurig K-4500 brewer.
Joshua also finds the cross-platform adaptability of Qt a major benefit. “I develop in Windows, and if I want to see the GUI, I can just run it there from Qt Creator. Even with Qt for MCUs, I can take the same code and reuse it. That’s really powerful, and I love it.”
The Perfect Blend for UI Innovation
Keurig has more products in development that will be powered by Qt and Qt for MCUs. Most coffee machines are consumer high-volume products, so the memory footprint needs to be as small as possible to keep costs down. “Qt is empowering,” continues Wilkie. “There’s so much it can do, and it’s easy to accomplish things that normally require many lines of code.”
Qt has helped Wilkie and the Keurig team reduce the time needed for iterative UI changes, which often take a lot of time during the design and development process. They estimate that, thanks to Qt, they saved a man-month of work throughout the project.
After using Qt for over 15 years, Wilkie clearly sees its value: “What I love most about Qt is how easy it is to create UIs. The speed with which I can turn an idea or a given design into a working product is amazing.”
Additionally, the Qt community and its documentation make work easier. “In software engineering, it often happens that you do things, and they don’t work. Qt online documentation is so excellent. It makes it easy to figure out which component you need and how to use it. My experience with Qt is such that you look at the documentation, you do it, and boom, it just works!”
About Keurig Dr Pepper
Keurig Dr Pepper is a leading beverage company in North America, with a portfolio of more than 125 owned, licensed and partners brands and powerful distribution capabilities to provide a beverage for every need, anytime, anywhere.
From still to sparkling, hot and cold, Keurig Dr Pepper offers 125+ iconic brands across a wide range of beverage categories, including soft drinks, coffee, water, tea, mixers and everything in between. Whether it’s a sip that supplies comfort, refreshes your senses, provides a treat, hydrates your body, energizes your mood or offers guilt-free goodness, their drinks are there to satisfy every need. Keurig Dr Pepper aim to be what you reach for anytime, from morning, noon and night – today and tomorrow. Their beverages are always available wherever you shop – from online ordering to a grab and go bottle at your local convenience store to a bulk buy at club, mass or grocery outlets – so you can enjoy anywhere, at home or on the go, at work or at play.
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