Personas, Goals, and Task Analysis

Getting to Know the Users and the Systems

To know more about the system’s intended users and how they currently purchase food in the restaurant, we went to observe the order taking operation at one McDonald’s on Shattuck Avenue during lunch hour. Then, we interviewed 5 regular McDonald's customers (see observation guideline questions and interview questions in appendix A and interviewees' profiles in appendix B)

• Order taking process (from when the customer reach the counter to when he or she pays) was less than one minute.
• Most popular types of orders were combination meals and items on special promotions
• One customer, not knowing the name of the food, ordered by pointing out a new sandwich in the display, but since the food display was too far from the counter, the cashier had a little problem figuring out what the customer wanted.
• Three separate customers spoke Spanish to the cashier.

Results from the Interviews

Food

• All often order combinations meals. They say it is because it is easy, quick, and economical
• All have two to three most favorite orders.
• Two do not like certain things on their burgers, such as onions and pickles. However, they usually prefer not to mention that to the cashier. One of them said, “it is too much trouble saying that to the cashier. I usually just throw the pickle away myself.”

Information Display

• All agree that pictures of the food and prices are the most important information that they need to make the decisions. They are particularly even more important for new items, special deals, and combination meals.
• Two complain that the menu display is a little bit too far, the font is not big enough, and everything is cramped in one place with no clear grouping of desserts, side orders, and so on.
• All but the female employee do not care about the nutrition facts and calories of the food.

Ordering

• One says, “if you are unlucky, you’ll get a very slow cashier.”
• One says, “the cashier usually doesn’t have a good courtesy. They look unhappy."
• Two claim that they sometimes either have to repeat what they ordered or ask the cahiers to repeat what they said.

Payment

• Four interviewees state that they would prefer paying with smart cards if there is an option to do so.
• One always uses cash.

Adoption of the New System

• Two say that they might not be the early adopters of the new system since they need to know whether the system will be easy to use or not, or whether it will work right or not. If they have problems, there may be no one who is readily available to take care of the problem. If they have the same problems with the cashier, at least they can still complain to the cashier.
• Two say that they would try the new system because they like to play with new things.
• One would prefer the kiosk to the cashier because with a machine, he can take more time browsing the selection.