6 ms·

"often still looking like it was designed in 1998" Apparently that's not a blocker, since Toast, built in the last few years, looks almost exactly the same: ht

"often still looking like it was designed in 1998" Apparently that's not a blocker, since Toast, built in the last few years, looks almost exactly the same: https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iKMT21ZfDyp4/v0/1400x-1.jpg https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iKMT21ZfDyp...

Semaphor 7y ago
that looks far sleeker and more modern that what I see used 99% of the time (no idea of it's aloha or something similar looking)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
gregmac 7y ago
Is this even a bad thing? The users of this software are "professional" - they interact with it anywhere from dozens of times a day to literally their entire shift. As such, the primary UX concerns are going to be speed and accuracy. Though having lots of buttons doesn't fit the slick/minimalist styling a lot of current apps go for, it's undoubtedly faster to use and easier to learn. I'd expect the most common operations to take 1 or 2 interactions (presses), and the least common shouldn't take more than 3 or 4. It should also be easily discoverable, From just looking at the screenshot, and having almost no experience with PoS, I'm pretty confident I could use it immediately with no training and actually place an order for someone. That said, Aloha in particular could probably benefit from some tweaking by a graphic designer - even just some minor changes to the color palette, spacing and border styles could make it much more visually appealing, without losing the current UX.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  > I'm pretty confident I could use it immediately with no training and actually place an order for someone. From experience I can tell you right now that POS software (officially stands for "point of sale", but in my mind most of them actually mean something else) violates pretty much every single expectation and convention you'd find in desktop software UIs. In fact, I'd argue it's easier for someone who's never been exposed to computers to learn it than for an experienced computer user, as the novice would learn from scratch while the experienced user would expect the POS to behave like most desktop computer software which usually isn't the case. I think part of the problem is that most POS software is designed to replicate a physical machine which has physical constraints such as a fixed number of buttons and small display area. In contrast, a computer can display anything and rearrange its UI depending on the context. Example: most POS software has a specific way (usually a button) to put an order on hold and be able to start ringing up the next customer's items while the existing order is invisible in the background, because on a physical POS there's no way to just duplicate the keyboard and screen and become two POSes side by side. On a computer however, the same is trivial by just having 2 tabs, both with the POS UI but containing the different orders. Most people would immediately recognise and understand (because of prior experience with browser tabs) without a need for training
  - Slartie 7y ago
    And most people would be irritated and ring stuff up into the wrong "tab" multiple times a day, because people are bad at multitasking. There is a reason why most POS software is intentionally restrictive and violating many common UI imperatives. Many common UI design rules are not governing the case of a user who is specifically trained to use a certain system, but must then use it in stressful situations at maximum speed and minimum error rate.

Semaphor 7y ago

that looks far sleeker and more modern that what I see used 99% of the time (no idea of it's aloha or something similar looking)

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

gregmac 7y ago

Is this even a bad thing? The users of this software are "professional" - they interact with it anywhere from dozens of times a day to literally their entire shift. As such, the primary UX concerns are going to be speed and accuracy. Though having lots of buttons doesn't fit the slick/minimalist styling a lot of current apps go for, it's undoubtedly faster to use and easier to learn. I'd expect the most common operations to take 1 or 2 interactions (presses), and the least common shouldn't take more than 3 or 4. It should also be easily discoverable, From just looking at the screenshot, and having almost no experience with PoS, I'm pretty confident I could use it immediately with no training and actually place an order for someone. That said, Aloha in particular could probably benefit from some tweaking by a graphic designer - even just some minor changes to the color palette, spacing and border styles could make it much more visually appealing, without losing the current UX.

Nextgrid 7y ago
> I'm pretty confident I could use it immediately with no training and actually place an order for someone. From experience I can tell you right now that POS software (officially stands for "point of sale", but in my mind most of them actually mean something else) violates pretty much every single expectation and convention you'd find in desktop software UIs. In fact, I'd argue it's easier for someone who's never been exposed to computers to learn it than for an experienced computer user, as the novice would learn from scratch while the experienced user would expect the POS to behave like most desktop computer software which usually isn't the case. I think part of the problem is that most POS software is designed to replicate a physical machine which has physical constraints such as a fixed number of buttons and small display area. In contrast, a computer can display anything and rearrange its UI depending on the context. Example: most POS software has a specific way (usually a button) to put an order on hold and be able to start ringing up the next customer's items while the existing order is invisible in the background, because on a physical POS there's no way to just duplicate the keyboard and screen and become two POSes side by side. On a computer however, the same is trivial by just having 2 tabs, both with the POS UI but containing the different orders. Most people would immediately recognise and understand (because of prior experience with browser tabs) without a need for training
- Slartie 7y ago
  And most people would be irritated and ring stuff up into the wrong "tab" multiple times a day, because people are bad at multitasking. There is a reason why most POS software is intentionally restrictive and violating many common UI imperatives. Many common UI design rules are not governing the case of a user who is specifically trained to use a certain system, but must then use it in stressful situations at maximum speed and minimum error rate.