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Honestly, I don't think they did nail it, specifically regarding customising the pizza visually. Sure, some sites let you do this but noone cares really. I thin

Honestly, I don't think they did nail it, specifically regarding customising the pizza visually. Sure, some sites let you do this but noone cares really. I think the main draw is you don't to talk to anyone. Not having to have a social interaction with a stranger is a major selling point. Also, doesn't apply to pizza, but for other things the main advantage is you don't need to order during business hours.

docbrown 7y ago
>Honestly, I don't think they did nail it, specifically regarding customising the pizza visually. Sure, some sites let you do this but noone cares really. I may be in the minority but I find this feature quite useful. As someone whose is a more visual learning person, having the ability to virtually see how my product will turn out makes it easier for me to make choices. Instead of thinking about if item X and Y go together, it gives me a better idea of how it may taste when I see them stacked on top of each other. I know X tastes like this, so seeing them next to each other, it may allow me to better think if tastes will work together. We also can’t forget about people who may not be able to read properly. Instead of worrying what they’re ordering, they just make it look like what they want. (somewhat of an extreme case but possible) So while I agree this small design is not a high priority for UX designers, I do think not having it would be somewhat of an accessibility barrier for some users.
- tedmiston 7y ago
  It also could allow you to do things not normally possibly like 2/3 pepperoni to 1/3 cheese vs halves. Or a design like a flag made out of pepperonis or a heart on Valentine's Day. I would pay more for the ability to make custom designs.
not_a_cop75 7y ago
It eliminates having to wait 20 minutes at the pizza place, which I surmount is the one reason people don't order in person. I don't order on the phone because I don't really use phones much anymore - most communication is better handled by texting/email.
TeMPOraL 7y ago
I order pizzas on-line quite frequently, and to me it has very little to do with talking to other people. The main draw of on-line ordering is that I can pay on-line. I don't usually carry enough spare change in small enough coins and bills to be able to pay for a pizza on delivery without an extra trip to the ATM and then a shop (to exchange bills for smaller denominations).
- derekp7 7y ago
  Do you really have ATMs that spit out $50 and $100 bills? Around here the highest bill is $20. And I've never run across any place that wouldn't take $20s.
  - mr_tristan 7y ago
    In the EU, yep. I remember in Austria having to withdraw "80" so I wouldn't get stuck with yet another 100 EUR note. You get used to finding the ATMs that let you get the smaller note sizes, because damn I hate being the jerk in the group that forces the waiter to break up your 50 or 100
  - toast0 7y ago
    I've used plenty of ATMs that didn't get the no bills larger than $20 memo. I haven't gotten a $100 out of an ATM, but plenty of $50s. Enough that for quite a while, I'd request $80, instead of $100, because it's less than what I want, but it will definitely be in bills I can use; $120 sometimes worked, if you knew the machine wouldn't mix denominations.
    - aczerepinski 7y ago
      I remember as a kid in the early 90s cashiers would hold $100 bills up to the light to make sure they were real. But there's been so much inflation since then... when will we stop treating $100 bills so carefully?
      - ajdlinux 7y ago
aczerepinski 7y ago
I think order accuracy is an advantage of online ordering as well. It removes the chance that somebody mishears you, etc.
- nemo44x 7y ago
  There’s this deli we sometimes order bagels and bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on weekends we are feeling lazy and want to sleep in. Often I’ll order a “Starbucks Frappuccino” with it. About 30% of the time lately my bag has a pack of “Starburst” in it. We have a few packs in the cupboard just sitting there as a reminder of the illiterate person who happens to pack our breakfast here and there.
vlunkr 7y ago
I mostly like being able to see the price calculations as I order. In the restaurant it’s always unclear if the extra cheese or whatever is going to cost you.
ThrustVectoring 7y ago
The big advantage for online ordering is that it removes the time pressure of being on a phone call with a busy live human being. This not only saves the store labor costs, but also increases sales - the time pressure defaults "do I want X" decisions to "no", and given the laxer pace of online ordering, people tend to spend more.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  A lot of chains did centralized call-taking and modems to send the order right to a triplicate dot matrix printer fairly early on. With a fax backup I guess. It also helps HQ stop under-the-table sales, or blocking the phone lines when they’re busy. I think a place I use still has its orders print on that.
- tluyben2 7y ago
  And I would think it prevents mistakes in ordering. Via the phone (a pizza shop etc is not generally very quiet) I often got the wrong order (but not completely wrong; chicken instead of pepperoni, not pasta instead of pizza) and/or delivered to the wrong address etc.
tyingq 7y ago
UberEats is maybe a good confirmation of this. Their interface for options like toppings is pretty shit, but nobody seems to care. They just figure it out.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  Tony and Alba's Pizza in Mountain View had various specials with discounted prices like "Ala Gilroy" with pepperoni, garlic, jalapenos, and bacon, and then you could add extra individual toppings on any pizza at a flat rate. (Their menu and pricing model may have changed since 1990.) https://www.yelp.com/biz/tony-and-albas-pizza-and-pasta-mountain-view https://www.yelp.com/biz/tony-and-albas-pizza-and-pasta-moun... Ben Stoltz's original DevGuide/XView/X11 version of PizzaTool and also my TNT/NeWS version both had pizza order optimizers, so if you put together a basic "Cheese" pizza with individual toppings clams, pepperoni, garlic, jalapenos, and bacon, it would optimize it to an "Ala Gilroy" with extra clams, which saved you money. There was nothing special users had to do (or even know about) to optimize the order: You could just select a pre-configured style or basic "Cheese" from the style drop-down, then click on and off the checkboxes to toggle toppings, and it would automatically reselect the most efficient base pizza style in the style drop-down, to automatically minimize the price. https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797#a453 https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems... Date: Tue, 28 May 91 19:25:45 PDT From: Paul Simons To: UNIX Today Subject: Pizzatool 4/29/91 Editor UNIX Today: We the following Sun engineers would like to make a historical clarification regarding the article entitled, “Any Way You Slice It, Sun’s Pizzatool Is Food For Thought” in the April 15 issue of UNIX Today. The original idea of ordering food from the workstation was conceived way back in 1989 by David LaValle who is now at NeXT. The original fully functional implementation of ordering food thru the workstation was “Pizzatool” developed by Ben Stoltz using Sun’s DevGuide. The features that were present in that original version included price optimization, pop-up preconfigured pizza menu, fully selectable ingredients, as well as the fax hook-in to fax an order to Tony and Alba’s. Fax capability courteousy of Ed Un. Don Hopkins subsequently reimplemented this original version of pizzatool in PostScript for the NeWS toolkit and added the WYSIWYG spinning popup pizza which provided a preview of the final cooked pizza. This letter in no way represents the views, product plans, or announcements of Sun Microsystems and is only the opinions of the engineers who witnessed this historic event. :-) Sean English, Dave Evans, Don Hopkins, Paul Simons, Ben Stoltz, Ed Un. Any Way You Slice It, Sun's PizzaTool Is Food For Thought https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/Yucks/V1/msg00044.html https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/Yucks/V1/msg00044.html >And in yet another advancement for the free exchange of software, Sun is offering PizzaTool source without charge. [...] >He said the PizzaTool even has a built-in cost-cutting feature that allows it to chec prices of the toppings you have selected, and try to build a cheaper pizza using a price list from your local pizza parlor. In its current incarnation, the PizzaTool will take an order and send it via E-mail to an address on the Pizza Server. At Sun, the server then sends a fax order to Tony and Alba's pizza place in Mountain View.
appleshore 7y ago
I’d rather order by command line. But more seriously, if I could have minimized order interface that’d be best. I want speed and ease.
- DonHopkins 7y ago
  !!
- jermaustin1 7y ago
  How much would you be willing to pay for a CLI to Pizza Hut or Dominoes? Its obvious that they will never implement that, so the only way would be a 3rd party and they would probably have to charge on top. I could see this as some sort of cash-back arbitrage business, where the vendor charges a 5% premium, plus use a 3% cash-back card to cover any remainder of the processing/interchange fees.

docbrown 7y ago

>Honestly, I don't think they did nail it, specifically regarding customising the pizza visually. Sure, some sites let you do this but noone cares really. I may be in the minority but I find this feature quite useful. As someone whose is a more visual learning person, having the ability to virtually see how my product will turn out makes it easier for me to make choices. Instead of thinking about if item X and Y go together, it gives me a better idea of how it may taste when I see them stacked on top of each other. I know X tastes like this, so seeing them next to each other, it may allow me to better think if tastes will work together. We also can’t forget about people who may not be able to read properly. Instead of worrying what they’re ordering, they just make it look like what they want. (somewhat of an extreme case but possible) So while I agree this small design is not a high priority for UX designers, I do think not having it would be somewhat of an accessibility barrier for some users.

tedmiston 7y ago
It also could allow you to do things not normally possibly like 2/3 pepperoni to 1/3 cheese vs halves. Or a design like a flag made out of pepperonis or a heart on Valentine's Day. I would pay more for the ability to make custom designs.

not_a_cop75 7y ago

It eliminates having to wait 20 minutes at the pizza place, which I surmount is the one reason people don't order in person. I don't order on the phone because I don't really use phones much anymore - most communication is better handled by texting/email.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

I order pizzas on-line quite frequently, and to me it has very little to do with talking to other people. The main draw of on-line ordering is that I can pay on-line. I don't usually carry enough spare change in small enough coins and bills to be able to pay for a pizza on delivery without an extra trip to the ATM and then a shop (to exchange bills for smaller denominations).

derekp7 7y ago
Do you really have ATMs that spit out $50 and $100 bills? Around here the highest bill is $20. And I've never run across any place that wouldn't take $20s.
- mr_tristan 7y ago
  In the EU, yep. I remember in Austria having to withdraw "80" so I wouldn't get stuck with yet another 100 EUR note. You get used to finding the ATMs that let you get the smaller note sizes, because damn I hate being the jerk in the group that forces the waiter to break up your 50 or 100
- toast0 7y ago
  I've used plenty of ATMs that didn't get the no bills larger than $20 memo. I haven't gotten a $100 out of an ATM, but plenty of $50s. Enough that for quite a while, I'd request $80, instead of $100, because it's less than what I want, but it will definitely be in bills I can use; $120 sometimes worked, if you knew the machine wouldn't mix denominations.
  - aczerepinski 7y ago
    I remember as a kid in the early 90s cashiers would hold $100 bills up to the light to make sure they were real. But there's been so much inflation since then... when will we stop treating $100 bills so carefully?
    - ajdlinux 7y ago

aczerepinski 7y ago

I think order accuracy is an advantage of online ordering as well. It removes the chance that somebody mishears you, etc.

nemo44x 7y ago
There’s this deli we sometimes order bagels and bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on weekends we are feeling lazy and want to sleep in. Often I’ll order a “Starbucks Frappuccino” with it. About 30% of the time lately my bag has a pack of “Starburst” in it. We have a few packs in the cupboard just sitting there as a reminder of the illiterate person who happens to pack our breakfast here and there.

vlunkr 7y ago

I mostly like being able to see the price calculations as I order. In the restaurant it’s always unclear if the extra cheese or whatever is going to cost you.

ThrustVectoring 7y ago

The big advantage for online ordering is that it removes the time pressure of being on a phone call with a busy live human being. This not only saves the store labor costs, but also increases sales - the time pressure defaults "do I want X" decisions to "no", and given the laxer pace of online ordering, people tend to spend more.

Scoundreller 7y ago
A lot of chains did centralized call-taking and modems to send the order right to a triplicate dot matrix printer fairly early on. With a fax backup I guess. It also helps HQ stop under-the-table sales, or blocking the phone lines when they’re busy. I think a place I use still has its orders print on that.
tluyben2 7y ago
And I would think it prevents mistakes in ordering. Via the phone (a pizza shop etc is not generally very quiet) I often got the wrong order (but not completely wrong; chicken instead of pepperoni, not pasta instead of pizza) and/or delivered to the wrong address etc.

tyingq 7y ago

UberEats is maybe a good confirmation of this. Their interface for options like toppings is pretty shit, but nobody seems to care. They just figure it out.

DonHopkins 7y ago
Tony and Alba's Pizza in Mountain View had various specials with discounted prices like "Ala Gilroy" with pepperoni, garlic, jalapenos, and bacon, and then you could add extra individual toppings on any pizza at a flat rate. (Their menu and pricing model may have changed since 1990.) https://www.yelp.com/biz/tony-and-albas-pizza-and-pasta-mountain-view https://www.yelp.com/biz/tony-and-albas-pizza-and-pasta-moun... Ben Stoltz's original DevGuide/XView/X11 version of PizzaTool and also my TNT/NeWS version both had pizza order optimizers, so if you put together a basic "Cheese" pizza with individual toppings clams, pepperoni, garlic, jalapenos, and bacon, it would optimize it to an "Ala Gilroy" with extra clams, which saved you money. There was nothing special users had to do (or even know about) to optimize the order: You could just select a pre-configured style or basic "Cheese" from the style drop-down, then click on and off the checkboxes to toggle toppings, and it would automatically reselect the most efficient base pizza style in the style drop-down, to automatically minimize the price. https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems-pizzatool-2a7992b4c797#a453 https://medium.com/@donhopkins/the-story-of-sun-microsystems... Date: Tue, 28 May 91 19:25:45 PDT From: Paul Simons To: UNIX Today Subject: Pizzatool 4/29/91 Editor UNIX Today: We the following Sun engineers would like to make a historical clarification regarding the article entitled, “Any Way You Slice It, Sun’s Pizzatool Is Food For Thought” in the April 15 issue of UNIX Today. The original idea of ordering food from the workstation was conceived way back in 1989 by David LaValle who is now at NeXT. The original fully functional implementation of ordering food thru the workstation was “Pizzatool” developed by Ben Stoltz using Sun’s DevGuide. The features that were present in that original version included price optimization, pop-up preconfigured pizza menu, fully selectable ingredients, as well as the fax hook-in to fax an order to Tony and Alba’s. Fax capability courteousy of Ed Un. Don Hopkins subsequently reimplemented this original version of pizzatool in PostScript for the NeWS toolkit and added the WYSIWYG spinning popup pizza which provided a preview of the final cooked pizza. This letter in no way represents the views, product plans, or announcements of Sun Microsystems and is only the opinions of the engineers who witnessed this historic event. :-) Sean English, Dave Evans, Don Hopkins, Paul Simons, Ben Stoltz, Ed Un. Any Way You Slice It, Sun's PizzaTool Is Food For Thought https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/Yucks/V1/msg00044.html https://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/Yucks/V1/msg00044.html >And in yet another advancement for the free exchange of software, Sun is offering PizzaTool source without charge. [...] >He said the PizzaTool even has a built-in cost-cutting feature that allows it to chec prices of the toppings you have selected, and try to build a cheaper pizza using a price list from your local pizza parlor. In its current incarnation, the PizzaTool will take an order and send it via E-mail to an address on the Pizza Server. At Sun, the server then sends a fax order to Tony and Alba's pizza place in Mountain View.

appleshore 7y ago

I’d rather order by command line. But more seriously, if I could have minimized order interface that’d be best. I want speed and ease.

DonHopkins 7y ago
!!
jermaustin1 7y ago
How much would you be willing to pay for a CLI to Pizza Hut or Dominoes? Its obvious that they will never implement that, so the only way would be a 3rd party and they would probably have to charge on top. I could see this as some sort of cash-back arbitrage business, where the vendor charges a 5% premium, plus use a 3% cash-back card to cover any remainder of the processing/interchange fees.