Scenario
Joe, Jane, John, and Julie, seniors at Dininghall College, are going on a double-date to a nice Italian restaurant, Mama Mia, on a Saturday night to celebrate Valentine’s Day. They arrive at Mama Mia and check in to their reservation, so they are seated immediately by the host at a lovely table set for four.
Task 1: Ordering Food & Drinks
They notice that the host has grabbed four tablets instead of menus. They are informed by the host that Mama Mia uses a new touch-screen device called OpenMenu that allows for electronic ordering and paying. The four friends have never used this system before, but they are intrigued and are excited to try the device. After each friend receives a device, they are immediately able to order beverages. Joe exclaims, “Wow, I can order my peach tea right now since I’m so thirsty!” Joe, being tech-savvy, proceeds to browse the many items on Mama Mia’s menu with simple swipes of his fingers and is able to view the images with no difficulty at all. John, who is not as tech savvy, is able to follow the simple on screen prompts to navigate the menu.
Task 2: Compare Foods & Filtering
Jane and Julie, who both love seafood, are able to only look at the seafood items by a quick filter and able to compare items that they like side by side with helpful information like ingredients and nutritional facts. The party of four is able to quickly order with ease and the order is sent electronically, with assurance that they’ll get exactly what they ordered.
Task 4: Games & Entertainment
In the meantime, Joe challenges his friends to a quick game of Scrabble that he has discovered on the device. The four friends enjoying their time together when the food finally arrives. Joe is thrilled that his rib-eye has been prepared exactly as he specified, a rare juicy steak with all the trimmings. John’s Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo is laden with extra mozzarella cheese as he requested. Jane and Julie’s salmon radiates a delicious aroma with a beautiful full color. The party is extremely pleased with their dishes, and after finishing their meals, they are stuffed and ready for the check. Jane realized that she wanted to try a new drink they have and uses the tablet to add it to their orders. Minutes later, the waiter arrives at the table to check how everyone is enjoying their food and hands Jane her new drink. They all stuff themselves, and finish there meals in an hour.
Task 3: View & Pay Bill
Because of the new device, they are not stuck waiting for their bill but instead are able to pay using the device at their leisure. Joe and Jane are paying together by a credit card, while John and Julie use cash. The entire process only takes a few minutes, even while splitting the bill and using different forms of payment. The four friends have enjoyed a lovely dinner, with no hassle what-so-ever, leaving Mama Mia very satisfied.
Storyboard Designs
Design 1: Using Menu as an Analogy
Welcoming Screen
This is the initial screen that the use will see. It will display a tutorial of how to use the tablet on the left and side, and a picture of the main menu of the restaurant. There is a little animation of a page flip for an experienced user to recognize that in order to open the menu, the user can swipe and "flip" open the menu.
Within the Scenario
Joe thinks that this tablet will be easy to learn so he wants to skip over the tutorial. Everyone else decides not to listen to Joe and quickly skims the tutorial.
Viewing and Ordering Food Screen
Text Here.
Comparing Foods & Drinks
Coming Soon.
Sending Order
Text here
Playing Games and Other Entertainment
Text.
Paying Order
Text Here.
Analysis
Task 1: View Foods and Other Products of the Restaurant
- Learnability
- Pros
- Very easy to pick up on how to select and scroll through products
- Quick tutorial if necessary
- Cons
- Where items are takes a little bit of time to learn
- Pros
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Can quickly see all the products and other relevant information
- Cons
- Where items are can be a hassle to find
- Scrolling can be inefficient, especially if items are at the bottom of the menu
- Pros
- Safety
- Pros
- A popup will ask for special instructions after clicking send order, allowing the user to cancel if it was an accidental click
- Cons
- If you order the wrong thing, there’s no going back, especially with the drinks
- Pros
Task 2: Filter and Compare Items
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- pros
- Can compare multiple items at the same time
- cons
- The user has to find and select all the items they want to compare
- pros
- Safety
- pros
- cons
Task 3: View and Pay Bill
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Cons
- Safety
- Pros
- Cons
Task 4: Play Touchscreen Games or Browse the Web
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Cons
- Safety
- Pros
- Cons
Design 2: Stage-Based Menu System
The second design we had was one where we split the ordering into stages, with the stages being drinks, food, Entertainment, and then lastly, the bill. The user is given the option of viewing a quick tutorial of the menu.
Viewing and Ordering Drinks Screen
The first stage is drink ordering. There is a list of drinks with pictures, pricing, and other information about each drink. There is a checkbox next to each drink to allow the user to pick what drink they want. There are buttons at the bottom of the screen that allows the user to compare drinks and send in their drink order. At the top of the screen, the user is allowed to filter and search drinks.
After receiving their menus, John, Jane, Joe, and Julie can order their drinks without waiting for their order to come over.
Viewing and Ordering Food Screen
After they order their drinks, the food menu pops up. It is split into categories, such as Appetizers, Soups, and so on. It is very similar in terms of the design to the drink menu in terms of layout. Each food product is listed as well as the picture, pricing, and other pertinent information. Like the drink menu, there are options to filter and search the menu and there are buttons at the bottom of the screen to compare and send in the order.
John, Jane, Joe, and Julie are able to browse through the menu quickly and select what they want. When they check on an item, they are allowed to provide special instructions so Joe can specify his steak to be prepared medium-well for example. Jane and Julie are able to filter the menu to only display seafood, and then compare seafood items side-by-side to determine what they want.
Comparing Foods & Drinks
Users are able to compare two items side-by-side and compare each item’s ingredients, pricing, pictures, and other relevant information. There is a back button to go back to the menu to allow the user to select which item they prefer.
When John, Jane, Joe, or Julie have a hard time deciding which of two or three or more items they want, they can click the compare button at the bottom of the menu and it will bring up a comparison page. This will allow them to make their decisions easier and faster.
Playing Games and Other Entertainment
The next stage is the entertainment stage, where the user will be able to browse the web or play a social game amongst the people at the table. The main view will be two icons, web and games. The web option will open a browser while the game option will open a tiled view of games available.
The four friends decide to play a social word game called Scrabble while they wait for their food.
Paying the Bill
The last stage is the payment stage, where the user will see a list of the items they ordered, along with the price and the subtotal, tax, and total amount. On the side, there is a helpful menu with the amount of money 10%, 15%, and 20% tip is. They are given the option to add tip to their bill and the option to split the bill. At the bottom of the page, they can choose their payment form. Paying by credit would allow the user to simply swipe their card while paying by cash will signal the waiter/waitress to come over.
On this screen, Joe and John want to split their check by couple and can easily do so with the split options. They will also be able to simply calculate the tip based on their input. Joe easily uses his credit card while John chooses to pay by cash.
Analysis
View Foods and Other Products of the Restaurant
- Learnability
- Pros
- Very easy to pick up on how to select and scroll through products
- Quick tutorial if necessary
- Cons
- Where items are takes a little bit of time to learn
- Pros
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Can quickly see all the products and other relevant information
- Cons
- Where items are can be a hassle to find
- Scrolling can be inefficient, especially if items are at the bottom of the menu
- Pros
- Safety
- Pros
- A popup will ask for special instructions after clicking send order, allowing the user to cancel if it was an accidental click
- Cons
- If you order the wrong thing, there’s no going back, especially with the drinks
- Pros
Filter and Compare Items
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- pros
- Can compare multiple items at the same time
- cons
- The user has to find and select all the items they want to compare
- pros
- Safety
- pros
- cons
View and Pay Bill
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Cons
- Safety
- Pros
- Cons
Play Touchscreen Games or Browse the Web
- Learnability
- Pros
- Cons
- Efficiency
- Pros
- Cons
- Safety
- Pros
- Cons
Design 3: Using a Tab-Based System;
The third design we developed is based on a tab system, with the main tabs being Menu, Order, Payment, and Entertainment. The main screen will simply be an image that the restaurant wants to use as a cover screen. Quick arrows and notes will be serve as tutorials on each individual tab.
This is the initial screen that the use will see. It will display a tutorial of how to use the tablet on the left and side, and a picture of the main menu of the restaurant. There is a little animation of a page flip for an experienced user to recognize that in order to open the menu, the user can swipe and "flip" open the menu.
Within the Scenario
Joe thinks that this tablet will be easy to learn so he wants to skip over the tutorial. Everyone else decides not to listen to Joe and quickly skims the tutorial.