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At least in my experience, what went wrong is that ordering machines didn't really improve the experience. Maybe compared to a bad cashier they're preferable.

At least in my experience, what went wrong is that ordering machines didn't really improve the experience. Maybe compared to a bad cashier they're preferable. But other than that, they are much slower and less convenient than just telling another human what you want. To use a fast food example, I somewhat regularly go to a McDonalds when we road trip (I have kids, don't shame me) and they have ordering screens. It takes easily 5x as long to answer all of it's questions about permutations on the meal I want than to just say "gimme a #2 with Dr Pepper, no pickles" to a cashier. Maybe if they put in a proper voice assistant it would be better. But the touchscreen is not in any way a superior experience.

Jeff_Brown 5y ago
Right. I was a waiter once. We had to learn to use the computer. It wasn't hard but it was work, and customers don't want to do it. It's not even clear that it would be efficient for the customer to learn it, even if they were willing, given how rarely most people eat out and how quickly memory degrades with disuse.
coolspot 5y ago
- “a gum and two dr.Peppers were added to your pickup order”
manmal 5y ago
Does the cashier at McDonald’s not enter your order into a similar system? Maybe the public UI is just inefficient. Where I live it was possible (a few years ago, they since stopped that) to pre-order with a mobile app. I always preferred that and felt it was a step in the right direction, because food was usually finished when I turned up.
- mandelbrotwurst 5y ago
  The employee UI can be more efficient in ways that require experience / training / knowledge etc in ways that a UI designed for a customer cannot.
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  A typical POS has all the buttons laid out in a fairly flat organization. Grill orders are simply a different mode you go into where the keys have different meanings. The UI for a POS is designed for efficiency (because the worker will get lots of practice using it) rather than accessibility (a customer won't use the UI so much, so it has to be easy to use).
nebula8804 5y ago
I seem to recall during my time in France is that they are Windows based machines with a Reflective touch screen hat moves the mouse cursor around. I wonder how much of the problem is just to poor implementation of the UX and ordering experience. I saw this issue with NJTransit ticket machines as well. They suck compared to NY subway. NJTRansit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNAwTJStwU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNAwTJStwU There are so many tiny improvements to speed they could do to make it a better experience, the tiny delays between menus add up, the printer is slow and has multiple delays. This all adds up and I have experienced the brunt end of then whenever I am rushing to catch a train. NY Subway: https://youtu.be/jcrrb48vzfY?t=87 https://youtu.be/jcrrb48vzfY?t=87 Notice how each screen transition is instantaneous. The money scanning is super fast and the ticket(card) dispensing is quite fast as well. If you are a frequent user, you can fly through this screen and this represents a real marked improvement over human interaction, there is no way you could replicate that speed with a human teller.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
> It takes easily 5x as long to answer all of it's questions about permutations on the meal I want than to just say "gimme a #2 with Dr Pepper, no pickles" to a cashier. Try the app on your phone: you can just go into your previous order and order it again. Really, I like the kiosks, but they can't get compare to an app ordering experience because the latter benefits from history.

Jeff_Brown 5y ago

Right. I was a waiter once. We had to learn to use the computer. It wasn't hard but it was work, and customers don't want to do it. It's not even clear that it would be efficient for the customer to learn it, even if they were willing, given how rarely most people eat out and how quickly memory degrades with disuse.

coolspot 5y ago

- “a gum and two dr.Peppers were added to your pickup order”

manmal 5y ago

Does the cashier at McDonald’s not enter your order into a similar system? Maybe the public UI is just inefficient. Where I live it was possible (a few years ago, they since stopped that) to pre-order with a mobile app. I always preferred that and felt it was a step in the right direction, because food was usually finished when I turned up.

mandelbrotwurst 5y ago
The employee UI can be more efficient in ways that require experience / training / knowledge etc in ways that a UI designed for a customer cannot.
seanmcdirmid 5y ago
A typical POS has all the buttons laid out in a fairly flat organization. Grill orders are simply a different mode you go into where the keys have different meanings. The UI for a POS is designed for efficiency (because the worker will get lots of practice using it) rather than accessibility (a customer won't use the UI so much, so it has to be easy to use).

nebula8804 5y ago

I seem to recall during my time in France is that they are Windows based machines with a Reflective touch screen hat moves the mouse cursor around. I wonder how much of the problem is just to poor implementation of the UX and ordering experience. I saw this issue with NJTransit ticket machines as well. They suck compared to NY subway. NJTRansit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNAwTJStwU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNAwTJStwU There are so many tiny improvements to speed they could do to make it a better experience, the tiny delays between menus add up, the printer is slow and has multiple delays. This all adds up and I have experienced the brunt end of then whenever I am rushing to catch a train. NY Subway: https://youtu.be/jcrrb48vzfY?t=87 https://youtu.be/jcrrb48vzfY?t=87 Notice how each screen transition is instantaneous. The money scanning is super fast and the ticket(card) dispensing is quite fast as well. If you are a frequent user, you can fly through this screen and this represents a real marked improvement over human interaction, there is no way you could replicate that speed with a human teller.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

> It takes easily 5x as long to answer all of it's questions about permutations on the meal I want than to just say "gimme a #2 with Dr Pepper, no pickles" to a cashier. Try the app on your phone: you can just go into your previous order and order it again. Really, I like the kiosks, but they can't get compare to an app ordering experience because the latter benefits from history.