The goal I had in mind when brainstorming was to make ordering products from stores/restaurants easier and faster.
My ideas:
Facebook app for restaurant/store profiles that lets you order products in advance
Google/Apple map add on that tells you which restaurants/stores allow you to order in advance
Mobile app that shows you locations that allow advance ordering and links you to their site/somewhere you can order
Mobile app that shows you locations that allow advance ordering and allows you to actually order
Mobile app that lets you order products in advance without paying (have to wait in line still to pay) and notifies someone that works there that they should have it ready for you
Mobile app that lets you order and pay for products (and therefore skip the line when you go to pick things up) and notifies someone that works there that they should have it ready for you
Mobile app that lets you order and pay for products in advance (gives you some sort of receipt) but doesn’t notify the store so you just go in and wait in line but the cashier doesn’t have to deal with your payment
Mobile app that allows cashier to decide whether people can order in advance, have to wait in line, etc. for specific time intervals. Would make it possible for cashiers to decide if they’re too busy to allow pre-orders during heavy traffic.
App to be used in store/restaurant (probably on a tablet) that allows people in line paying with card to pay and get receipt to bring to cashier. Might make lines quicker and cashiers would only ever have to deal with cash.
Mobile app that tells you length of line in particular store and estimates wait time. Would require input from employees at stores but would be good for customers in a hurry.
Mobile app that compares lines in different stores and gives you list of estimated wait times for each. Again, would be really good for people that don’t have much time to pick things up.
App that only allows orders of a specific size to be made in advance. Size of allowed orders would be determined by store/restaurant--maybe they only want to allow very large or small orders ahead of time.
App that allows you to get a coupon that allows you to cut in line/go in some sort of express lane at a store/restaurant. Might require you to pay extra money or it could be a reward for making a purchase there some number of times.
Mobile app that works like Venmo/Paypal but where the money recipient is a restaurant
Mobile app that allows you to link your bank account, order food and get a barcode or something a cashier at the restaurant can scan, and just bring it with you so the cashier doesn't have to deal with your credit card and no one has to deal with cash
The cashiers I talked to previously did not seem super crazy about the idea of apps that allow customers to order in advance, so I decided the best of these ideas is the mobile app that allows users to compare lines/wait times since it’s beneficial to customers and would not require much effort from store/restaurant employees. I decided to narrow the idea down to be restaurant specific to make it simpler.
The process:
You can see the prototype I made in the photo below, as well as a picture of one of the two people I interviewed. One was a woman in her late 20's, the other was a man in his late 30's who declined to be photographed. Both worked at stores (not restaurants) on Bancroft.
My basic approach for getting feedback was telling them what the app was meant to do, then showing them the top left piece of paper, which would be the home screen. I made sure they thought the possible actions they could take (changing the radius or continuing on) were obvious, which they did. Then I showed them the card that says "Select restaurants to compare" at the top and did the same thing. Neither had a problem with this.
Then I showed them the card in the middle of the bottom row and asked what they understood on the screen. They both figured out that the people represented actual people, although it took the woman a little longer than I expected to understand that the numbers in parentheses to the right were the number of people as well. They also both noted the drop down menu at the top, so I showed them the card on the left of the bottom row.They were both able to figure out that it was just a slightly different representation of the previous screen.
Neither really noticed the very bottom of the last two cards I showed them (where it has the option to "start over" or "edit restaurants") so I asked where they would expect both of those options to take them. They both correctly assumed that "start over" would go back to the very first screen and "edit restaurants" would take them to the second screen. I showed them the bottom right card and asked if they'd prefer "edit restaurants" to take them to a screen where their previously chosen options were still checked off and they both said yes.
Insights:
After showing all the cards I asked what their overall impression of the app was--was it useful? was the layout simple/intuitive? They both liked the idea and said it would be super useful at lunchtime for them. The woman didn't have any complaints really, but she would like it if she could actually order food using the app. The man thought having the number of people was pointless since all he would care about would be the estimated wait time. He would rather have the little people icons represent some unit of time rather than the literal number of people. He didn't mind that you couldn't order from the app itself since he would still be walking to the restaurant either way.
I think the man's comment that he really only cares about the wait time was the most helpful feedback, because I realized that's probably the case for everyone. If I did another revision of this app in the future I'd take out the screen that sorts by the number of people since it simplifies the app but still gives the information people actually care about. Since some people might also want to order in advance, I might make it so clicking a restaurant name expands the line and 1) tells people whether the restaurant allows advance ordering and 2) gives users the option to go to the restaurant's website/open their mobile app.
I might also add to the screen that lists all the restaurants and give people the ability to filter by food types, create a list of favorite restaurants, etc.
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