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Safety: This design is fairly safe. If a wrong filter is applied, it is made obvious how to remove it, and removal of said filter is done almost instantaneously.
Design 3
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Task 1: Selecting a restaurant
Design selection: QR code
When Anand opens up the app, he is greeted by the welcome screen to menu.io. A waiter points him to the QR code at the center of his table. Anand touches the “Scan QR Code” button and a QR reader appears. He scans the QR code which immediately pulls up the main page for Cinderalla’s. Anand touches the menu button to pull up the Cinderalla’s menu.
Learnability: The QR code scanner is a popular technology in many mobile applications, so many users would recognize it.
Efficiency: The QR scanner would immediately pull up the restaurant’s menu so there would be fewer button presses for the user. However, sometimes QR scanners take a while to scan the code, depending on the angle and proximity of the code.
Safety: Sometimes QR scanners cannot locate the code because the angle is bad or the code is too far away. Assuming the restaurant places the codes in an appropriate location, the QR reader would be very safe because it would load the correct menu.
Task 2: View the menu
Design selection: Modified Lazy Susan/Scroll wheel
The first page of the menu displays the different categories of food at Cinderalla’s: pasta, pizza, appetizers, drinks, salads, and more. Sample pictures of these categories are displayed in a circular around the main stage. The The main stage displays the highlighted picture at the very top.
Anand is in the mood for pasta, so he drags the circular icons around the stage until the pasta icon is displayed. He touches the center stage (he could also touch the bottom label) to bring up the pasta sub-menu. Anand uses the scroll wheel to scroll through the items until he reaches mushroom ravioli. He thinks that sounds pretty good, so he drags the ravioli on the center stage to the basket in the upper right-hand corner. Anand keeps looking through the pasta items, and also decides to drag the fettuccine alfredo to the basket to compare later.
Learnability: The scroll wheel is not a common interface, but it is common enough that it would be recognizable. It also follows a modified-Lazy Susan metaphor which might help some users.
Efficiency: The scroll wheel is not always efficient to go through for each task. It presents an element of novelty, however, it can often be cumbersome when browsing for new dishes. Also, scrolling, dragging and then clicking can be a a time-consuming process.
Safety: The scroll wheel can be less safe if users go through the two-step process because of a lapse. However, the two-step process also remains a check that sometimes prevents errors because users can preview sub-categories before moving on.
Task 3: Filter/compare the menu
Design selection: Comparison grid/table
Anand clicks on the basket to compare his options. He is greeted by a screen with a large stage in the middle with three places to drop entrees. His choices (mushroom ravioli and fettuccine alfredo) are sitting at the top of the stage. He sees that if he decides he doesn’t want a dish he can always drag it into the trashcan in the upper right-hand corner to remove it from his basket. He also sees that if he wants to keep searching the menu he can click the menu button in the upper left-hand corner.
Anand next drags his two dishes into the center stage. He presses compare to pull up a table comparing the ingredients of his two selections. He immediately sees that the fettuccine alfredo has chicken and that the mushroom ravioli does not. Since Anand is a vegetarian, he immediately rules out the fettuccine alfredo, and waits for the waiter to take his order.
Learnability: The shopping cart metaphor is sometimes good for users to learn that they are in the final step of the decision process. It can also be hard to understand that the basket is for filtering initially, rather than just viewing.
Efficiency: The filtering mechanism is not particularly efficient in that it can’t allow you to apply large filters, and makes only small comparisons. However, some users might like comparing individual items at a time if they are between particular choices - which makes it easier for people who are indecisive between 2-3 items.
Safety: This mechanism is safe in that it requires multiple steps to get to this stage, and people can still choose what items they want to compare. A comparison is usually going to be determined, and not random. If the wrong dish is there, it can be sent to the trash can easily. Users can add as many dishes they want, and also compare as many decisions they want, without having to worry about the number of items they might have dragged into the basket.
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