User Analysis
The Interviews
We have interviewed three people from different age groups who can be typical users of our products.
User 1: The Older Parent
Gender: Male
Age: Late 40s
Key Traits
- Goes out to eat with family
- Considers himself not tech savvy
- Not Very Fluent with English
- Does not like to customize food
- Worries about Food Allergies
User 1 has been to many restaurants in his lifetime. He is an immigrant to the United States and does not consider himself tech savvy. He is not very fluent with English and says he bases his order off of any images in the menu and what "looks good." He states that this is the main reason why he prefers restaurants who has waiters and waitress who speaks his native language rather than American restaurants. He has to be aware of his food allergies every time he goes out.
User 2: The College Student
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Key Traits
- Goes out with friends a lot
- Gets frustrated with splitting the bill
- Has troubling calculating the right amount of tip
- Considers himself a tevy savvy person
User 2 likes to go out with his friends on weekends to restaurants.
User 3: The Waitress
Gender: Female
Age: Early 20s
Key Traits
- Stresses during rush hour
- Has to worry about time management (last time checking up on tables)
- Hates it when customers ask too much about the food
User 3 has been a waitress for multiple restaurants since she was in high school. She states that it is a very stressful job when she has to interact with a lot of customers during rush hours or when she has to deal with rude customers. She says she has to keep mental tabs of when she has checked up on tables to make sure everything is okay. She hates it when customers take too long to order or asks too much about the food because he hold her backs from working with other tables.
Task Analysis
View Foods and Other Products of the Restaurant
OpenMenu will display a picture of the every item on the menu, as well as ingredients and nutritional facts. This will give the user a better idea of what each item is and whether or not it is something they want to order. Additionally, some people want to know nutritional facts, in case they are on a diet or something similar. Displaying the nutritional facts will allow them to judge what they can and cannot eat.
Subtasks:
- View images of foods
- View ingredients of foods
Questions:
- Why is the task being done?
- To view all items that the restaurant offers, giving the user more information
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task?
- The user can go in knowing about the device or service
- Where is the task being performed?
- On the device
- How often is the task performed?
- Presumably performed every time customer orders (very often)
- What are its time or resource constraints?
- Only depends on if there are enough devices for every customer currently in the restaurant
- How is the task learned?
- Through a quick tutorial for navigation on touch controls (if necessary)
- What can go wrong? (Exceptions, errors, emergencies)
- Device could break
Filter and Compare Items
We will allow the user to filter the menu by type of food, such as pasta or burgers, or by ingredients, such as chicken or shrimp. This will allow the user to zone in on the kind of food they want much faster. In addition, many customers often spend a lot of time deliberating between a couple choices. Allowing the user to compare the items side-by-side is much easier and more efficient than flipping back and forth between pages of the menu.
Subtasks:
- Filter items based on type and ingredients
- Compare between multiple items while deciding
Questions:
- Why is the task being done?
- Make it easier for the user to choose their order
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task?
- Needs to have a general idea of what kind of food they want
- Where is the task being performed?
- On the device
- How often is the task performed?
- About 2-3 times per customer for filtering and comparing
- What are its time or resource constraints?
- Resource constraints is number of devices in the restaurants
- How is the task learned?
- Customer needs to be informed of option
- What can go wrong? (Exceptions, errors, emergencies)
- Device could malfunction or there could be a bad connection between the customer's device and the kitchen.
View and Pay Bill
After the meal, customers are left waiting for the bill while the waiter or waitress is bogged on with other customers. This can be a very inefficient process. With OpenMenu, customers will be able to swipe their cards at the table or choose the cash option to get the waiter's or waitress' attention. The option of splitting the check and calculating the tips will also be included to make everyone's lives easier.
Subtasks:
- Split the check
- Calculate tip
Questions:
- Why is the task being done?
- Allow the customer to pay and split bills quickly and easily
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task?
- An idea of how they want to pay the bill
- Where is the task being performed?
- On the device
- How often is the task performed?
- Once at the end of every meal
- What are its time or resource constraints?
- Resource constraints is number of devices in the restaurants
- How is the task learned?
- Customer will be prompted and guided through the payment process
- What can go wrong? (Exceptions, errors, emergencies)
- Device could be unable to pull up the bill or read the credit card
Play Touchscreen Games or Browse Web
While waiting for food, customers are often bored with nothing to do. And since food preparation can take a long time, sometimes upwards of an hour, users can get bored or annoyed very quickly. With OpenMenu offering games and web browsing, the customers can be pass the time easily while waiting for their food.
Questions:
- Why is the task being done?
- To entertain the customer while waiting for their food to arrive
- What does the user need to know or have before doing the task?
- The user simply needs to be informed by the waiter/waitress that this feature exists
- Where is the task being performed?
- On the device
- How often is the task performed?
- Presumably after every customer orders (very often)
- What are its time or resource constraints?
- Only depends on if there are enough devices for every customer currently in the restaurant
- How is the task learned?
- Customer only needs to be informed that the feature exists
- What can go wrong? (Exceptions, errors, emergencies)
- Device could break