3 ms·

I developed POS systems for a friend who starts and runs places (restaurant-bars) that are the most successful in the region; always packed, making him pure gol

I developed POS systems for a friend who starts and runs places (restaurant-bars) that are the most successful in the region; always packed, making him pure gold. He insists on never hiring '16 year old kids during the summer' but rather have his decades long trained staff move from old to new place to properly train the new staff there. The system we made for him was absolutely optimized for hitting the screen as little and as fast as possible per order. This made it unusable for beginners however he argues he made a lot more money because of it: no queues at ordering so no risk of people walking away bored (this is very common with people who are not usual bar goers), less error prone etc. If everything is ran like a gig economy then simple and wizard like interfaces are a must but for long running companies with long term staff it probably will show less efficient over time although no one will probably measure that in most companies. A lot of projects we did were web interfaces on top of DOS or terminal projects; usually the companies did not want to replace the legacy because their seasoned employees who basically made all the money for them were very used to the old system. But now short term hires could do some specific tasks as well via the web interface.

vacri 10y ago
So the solution is for everyone to hire decades-trained staff?
- tluyben2 10y ago
  No, I did not say that. I said that there are plenty of cases in which those less intuitive interfaces + a bit of training pays off. I even added an example where we built intuitive web interfaces on top of DOS/terminal programs to make them more accessible for 'new people'. Nothing wrong with it, just wanted to provide a case (mentioned by the parent) where a company makes significant profits because of a faster workflow with a hard to use (for beginners) interface. My local (tiny) bank went from TUI->GUI->TUI because the, again decade long employees who train their colleagues and follow ups, found it awfully inefficient with all the wizards and forms spread out over multiple pages and design elements where more option buttons could have been. It's not a contest either; for most cases a carefully crafted GUI works better; in some cases, a TUI or very dense (considered ugly) GUI works better. I miss the Expert Mode button in web applications.
- zhte415 10y ago
  Hiring decades-trained staff is often a good idea.
toomanybeersies 10y ago
> He insists on never hiring '16 year old kids during the summer' Unfortunately, as a company developing POS systems, you can't just tell your customers that. You're right on the minimal taps thing though. It shouldn't take more than 3 taps to send a basic order through (e.g. a beer).
- tluyben2 10y ago
  Well, in this case, he ordered a custom made POS for all his bars/restaurants. So it was a specific case.
- peterwwillis 10y ago
  If you put a number next to the on screen menu, and a small keypad below the screen, they can use the screen in the beginning and naturally start using the keypad to speed up orders over time. They'll teach themselves because in crunch time they'll want to become faster so they can get more orders to make more tips, etc
  - tluyben2 10y ago
    Expert mode. Most applications would do well with that.

vacri 10y ago

So the solution is for everyone to hire decades-trained staff?

tluyben2 10y ago
No, I did not say that. I said that there are plenty of cases in which those less intuitive interfaces + a bit of training pays off. I even added an example where we built intuitive web interfaces on top of DOS/terminal programs to make them more accessible for 'new people'. Nothing wrong with it, just wanted to provide a case (mentioned by the parent) where a company makes significant profits because of a faster workflow with a hard to use (for beginners) interface. My local (tiny) bank went from TUI->GUI->TUI because the, again decade long employees who train their colleagues and follow ups, found it awfully inefficient with all the wizards and forms spread out over multiple pages and design elements where more option buttons could have been. It's not a contest either; for most cases a carefully crafted GUI works better; in some cases, a TUI or very dense (considered ugly) GUI works better. I miss the Expert Mode button in web applications.
zhte415 10y ago
Hiring decades-trained staff is often a good idea.

toomanybeersies 10y ago

> He insists on never hiring '16 year old kids during the summer' Unfortunately, as a company developing POS systems, you can't just tell your customers that. You're right on the minimal taps thing though. It shouldn't take more than 3 taps to send a basic order through (e.g. a beer).

tluyben2 10y ago
Well, in this case, he ordered a custom made POS for all his bars/restaurants. So it was a specific case.
peterwwillis 10y ago
If you put a number next to the on screen menu, and a small keypad below the screen, they can use the screen in the beginning and naturally start using the keypad to speed up orders over time. They'll teach themselves because in crunch time they'll want to become faster so they can get more orders to make more tips, etc
- tluyben2 10y ago
  Expert mode. Most applications would do well with that.