Blog: Draw 6 Sketches Within 30 Minutes on a Design Scenario
Objective: Draw 6 sketches within 30 minutes on a design scenario.
Problem statement: Examining how digital augmentation can be incorporated in the work flow processes of Panera Bread cafe and to investigate how information processing as a material can be incorporated in the design of user experience.
In response to the blog posts, Field Observation and Embedding Digital Augmentation in Panera Bread Cafe, I’ve decided to sketch 6 sketches within 30 minutes based on my ideas on how digital augmentation can be implemented. Moreover, I will look closely as to how information processes as a material, where objects can be made. This requires examining the user experience not only in terms of context, but also the device as a single thing. Mainly, I will use Buxton’s techniques that are discussed in “Sketching User Experience: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design” as a guide to this sketching exercise (1).
Mainly, I want to practice my skills in design-thinking, which comes from constant exposure to design excercises. Sketches are drastically different from prototypes. Sketches are suggestive, it proposes and questions, and needs to be tested and challenged. As quoted by Buxton, “the investment with a sketch is in the concept, not the execution. Rather, their value largely depends on their disposability. And the skill of extracting meaning from sketches continues to develop with experiences(118).” I will be using different forms of sketching techniques, that ranges from memory drawing, presentation drawing, technical drawing and description drawing to my best advantages in conveying my ideas (121).
SUMMARY OF INTERACTIONS OBSERVED FROM PREVIOUS BLOG
- Each server attends to the need of one customer until payment is being received.
- Short orders are performed more efficiently.
- When there are no customers, servers will be running other errands in the kitchen space or out on the floor.
SIX SKETCHES IN RESPONSE TO OBSERVATIONS
Sketch#1. Real-time Wristwatch Feed in Monitoring Customer Traffic
Servers can wear a bracelet that provides real-time feed of the traffic of customer. This is further supported by the design idea of Sketch#3: OpenCV Customer Detection. This design aims to mimic a digital watch, and functions like a news feed update. A variety of information will be provided – such as, self-serving stand alarms (Sketch#4: Self-Serving Stand Automation), entering customer, exiting customer, and alarms on information of customers who left due to long line wait, and the amount of customers in the store.
By providing these information, servers can make make key decisions as to when to attend to self-serving stands or can adjust accordingly to their service. They can further request for back-up when needed.
Sketch#2. Interactive Wall that Supports Self-Serve Order
During the observation, I noticed the long line and saw how waiting time is extremely discouraging, especially for customers with short orders. A digital augmentation solution is to extend the space of the cashier and in changing the way servers and customers interact. When entering into the cafe, customers no longer need to line up. By approaching the interactive wall in the shop, a display will be triggered by a single tap on the wall. The display is a self-ordering system, where customers can complete their order themselves. This will greatly change the way users congregate in the store. Previously, customers have to wait and line up in front of the cashier. This solution can help disperse the line formation, and can change the entire user experience, where people can hang-out at desired locations.
Sketch#3. Open CV Customer Detection and Open-Source Processing Technology for Presence Detection
At the entrance, an OpenCV facial detection camera is placed where it can detect user’s presence. It can count the amount of people who have entered and who have exited. Furthermore, the platform can be programmed in a way where it can assume that a fast exit (ex. customer enters the store and exits within 30 second) is due to a long wait time. All of this rich, contextual information can be delivered to the real-time wristwatch feed (Sketch#1). This can help servers to make quick decisions as to adjusting their work-flow and in better decision-making. Moreover, through better task-flow adjustment, it will thereby increase the efficiency of the line-up, reducing the scenario where customers leave due to long line wait.
Sketch#4. Self-Serving Stand Automation
As noted, other errands that servers need to attend to are refilling bakery items and the self-serving stand. One of the question that comes into mind is how can the server do a better job in balancing these task? One idea is that the self-serving stand can have a built-in quantity detection, where it can detect the amount of the coffee that is left. When it decreases to a certain amount, say, only 15% remaining, it will proceed and activate coffee brewing in the kitchen. After the coffee is brewed, it sends a signal to the wristband that the server wears. Each feed will be updated accordingly as a news feed. However, when the coffee finish brewing, the bracelet will vibrate to give tactile feedback to notify the server that the coffee needs to be refilled.
Sketch#5. Wizard-style Ordering System
As noted, the interactive display (Sketch#2) on the walls supports for self-ordering service. However, how do customers pay? A design idea that was triggered from the self-serving check-in services at the airport, users can have a wizard-style ordering system that follows a three-step process: select order, view order, payment and rewards card. When an order is carried out, at the back-end, servers can prepare each customer’s order, where a ticketing-receipt will be printed, and will be handed off to each customer as they pick up their order.
Sketch #6. RF-IDs on Table Surfaces for Seated Customers
RF-IDs are inexpensive ways to track and record information, which has been conventionally used to track shipped goods. Since customers have rewards card, RF-ID tags can be incorporated to each rewards card. On the table, when the rewards card are placed, customer order can be identified. This can be reflected on a floor plan beside the cashier space, where servers can deliver food to them, since they know which order goes to which table now. Previously, servers attend to processing order, and had customers pick up their own food. Now, the situation is reverse. Customers take care of their own order without waiting, and servers can bring the food to them. Given the scenario that customers can now take care of their own orders, more manpower is alleviated from ringing up customers, and can be distributed to other things. This greatly changes the entire user experience, where customers do not have to wait in line anymore, but more importantly, can causally grab a seat, and have food be brought to them.
In sum, in the previous blog, I already have some ideas as to how digital augmentation can be incorporated at Panera Bread. For this blog, I wanted to do a quick ideation session that focuses on thinking on the spot, without being restricted in the quality of the idea.
Disclaimer: After the sketches were done, I took an extra 15 minutes in coloring the sketches. :-)
References:
1. Buxton, B. (2007). Sketching user experience: getting the design right and the right design. Morgan Kaufman
