GroupBrainstorm-Group:Whoo-Whoo...iz liek an alarm clock
From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06
Contents |
Anoto Enabled Menus for Restaurants
Team Members
Anton Mikhailov
Brainstorm
1. Order from home
2. Pay by writing card # on the order form to pay
3. Ordering station at fast food
4. Order card seperate from menu
5. Order customization on the order card
6. Square boxes near each item to fill in quantity of the food needed
7. When the customer check a box on the order card, invoice is printed at the cashier desk
8. Screen on table to provide feedback for customers' action, like at point 7
9. Screen in the kitchen with orders on it, also provide input device for chef to indicate the food is prepared.
10. Menu has number associate with each item, so customers can use the screen to check the picture of food by the number. It allows the menu to include more information.
11. Feedback form for customers. When the customer check the box on the form, it sends a email to the owner to provide feedback.
12. A textbox in the order card, so that customers can provide additional information to the chef for further customization of the food
13. Seperate sheet of paper next to menu with pure handwriting for extra ingredients.
14. Pictures for extra ingredients that you can circle or check if you want to have it or cross out if you don't want the ingredient in the menu.
15. Allow full customization to build your own burger. Have different types of buns, all ingredients, type of burger on the menu with pictures. Have a checkbox with quantity number to see how much of each item you want on your burger.
16. PDA for waiter to get information from the customers on if they have a question need help/ in restaurants and to get their orders.
17. Use stations where waiters and waitresses can see order information and if a table needs help instead of PDA, which may be cumbersome to carry.
18. Possibly, with high end restaurants, just have waiters use an Anoto pad to get the order so they don't have to go back and forth to the kitchen to give the orders to the chef, allowing waiters to stay on floor longer.
19. A handheld device that waiters carry with a screen on the back, facing the customers. As the waiter writes down the order on Anoto paper, the screen is updated to reflect customers orders. This way they see their updated order and the updated price total.
20. Pay credit card statement by signing with Anoto pen. Signature is uploaded immediately to credit card company.
21. A menu made from anoto paper, with pictures for each menu item. Patrons circle the pictures of items they want to order, choices are uploaded to the kitchen.
22. In the drive through, customers use a pen and paper, passing it around the card to fill out the order. They then get in line (in their car) to pay the cashier once they know what they want. The cashier knows how much they owe because the order has been forwarded to her already, and the food can be prepared once the customer signals they're done ordering.
Idea Selection
Our idea selections are 3,4,5,6,9,14,21. First, we like to have order card separated from menu. In the order, we have pictures for extra ingredients and square boxes for customers to input the quantity of their chosen food. Then, customers can pay the food in a pay station as the self-help pay stations in many modern grocery stores like Albertson. As a customer writes down their order and pays, the order is sent immdediately to the screens in the kitchen. It would not require so much modification of the systems currently in place at establishments such as McDonalds where there are screens inside the kitchen telling workers what food to make. Using this model, the Anoto pen and paper provides significant benefit without too much modification of restaurant's current system.
Target Users
The target users for our solution are fast food/low end restaurant patrons and the owners of these establishments. Specifically, our system targets any restaurant where customers order at the register stand instead of having waiters ask them their order.
The patrons would be the ones that use the new system, while one employee oversees it's use. The owner would benefit because she would not need to hire employees to work at registers, and would only need to have just one employee to watch over the food ordering station.
Problem Description
The bottleneck, from the time the customer enters the restaurant to when they get their food, at these restaurants is during the waiting time to order the one's food. Also, orders are not always accurate which causes dispute and delay. These delays further cause increased waiting time to those who are not even ordering. The waiting time during peak hours can be quite long, especially when these restaurants pride themselves in delivering food quickly to the consumers.
A new method to help speed up the bottleneck will greatly increase the customer satisfaction of the fast food restaurant, since customers tend to eat at fast food restaurants when they are in a hurry or want to get food quickly. This increase in consumer satisfaction should help to inrease the profit of the restaurant since more fast food customers will gravitate to a place where food is prepared quickly and the hassle of ordering your food is taken away.
Context
At fast food restaurants, you find many people waiting in line to order. Everyone ordering takes a different amount of time, and often times you find the queuing effect of many quick orders stuck behind one slow order. If you were able to increase the number of ordering stations without increasing (or even decreasing) the staff required, it would be a win for customers (who no longer have to wait to order) and the restaurant (who can increase throughput and lower the staff at ordering stations).
We know of no other solutions to this problem. Our solution is similar in some ways to a new thing at some stores (Albertsons, Home Depot) where customers go to a pay station and swipe the items that they are buying. They then pay at the pay stations, while one employee oversees multiple pay stations to discourage theft. Instead of pay stations, we have ordering stations. Our method of input is the biggest difference: customers don't swipe the barcodes on the items they are purchasing, they write down their orders on an Anoto ordering card.
Why Anoto
Anoto offers a familiar interface and since the target audience is very broad, the lower tech, the better. Using the pen and paper system is necessary in order to cater to the elderly, small children, and everyone in between.
- Cheap.
- Easy to implement and compatible with some systems that are already in place.
- Resistant to theft (chain down the pens, the paper is cheap).
- Resilient against food. If the ordering cards get dirty, throw them away. The pen should be easy to clean.
- Easy to modify and extend. Just print out new menus and ordering cards, then modify the recognition software to work with these new cards.
Solution
An ordering station is set up with multiple locations where customers use an Anoto pen and Anoto-compatible ordering card for to order their food. On the card customers can mark in numbers of items they wish to order, as well as a place to put in modifiers such as "no onions". Each order form would have unique number, which would identify the order and link it up with a paying station. The patron may either enter the card # directly on the card or use a paying station by entering his form number in first, then inserting payment. The order would then be prepared and the form number called when ready.
One employee would oversee the station to answer any questions and provide customer assistance. Pens would be chained to a station where the order forms are to prevent theft (similar to how banks have chains on their pens). Digital paper is cheap, and this would be on the table for anyone's use. People can simply take another piece of paper if there are any mistakes on it and throw away/tear up the old piece of paper; nothing would be ordered until it has been payed for.
This solution would be ideal for fast food chains or low end restaurants such as a pizza hut where customers order at register. It eliminates time spent waiting in line, reduces the number of employees required to operate the restaurant, and makes orders more accurate (sometimes the cashiers or customers speak poor english).
How the Anoto pen would be protected from theft:
An example ordering form, where the customer writes the number of the item they desire, checks pictures indicating which ingredients to include with their order, and indicates quantity of each.
