Problem and Solution OverviewSolutionTarget UsersMeet the EmployeesContextual Inquiry - Interview DescriptionsProcess and environmentCommon Tasks and ThemesUnique features of individual interviewsConcerns on the applications using the Anoto PenRecommendationsExpected BenefitsTask Analysis QuestionsAnalysis of TasksProblem and Solution Overview Problem The problem is simple. Ordering food in a sushi restaurant takes a long time. The process starts with the waitress, and goes something like this: Waitress -> Takes an order -> Goes to Sushi bar to place an order -> Goes to cashier for record -> Waits -> Gets the food -> Serves the food -> Waits -> Goes back to cashier -> Gets receipt -> Goes back to customer Sushi chefs have to wait until a waiter/waitress brings in an order. During busy hours, waiters can't go to the sushi bar right after he or she received an order because they have to get multiple orders and take them at once. Sometimes sushi cooks take a long time to read all of the waiter's orders, and often they interpret orders incorrectly. Unorganized Food Making Process: In a busy restaurant the process can be streamlined. When many orders are waiting, finding items that are common across those orders is necessary to quicken the process. A chef can make many of one item at the same time which will take less overall time then making all of those items separately. However, it is hard to find common items with the existing system because orders are written on many small papers. Absence of Management System for Sushi restaurant: Here are some more disadvantages to the current system: • non-digitalized sales record – employee can steal money after trashing order paper • lack of statistical data of sales, inventory – hard to analyze restaurant’s current situation or hard to predict future sales because all the record is on paper (do not know when and exact amount of food materials to order from suppliers) Solution Sushi Restaurant Cashier – Digitized orders and various statistics of sales Waiters/waitress – Fill out Anoto recognizable and pre-printed order sheet Sushi Chefs – Sorted orders by table and grouped by common orders to speed up the process of the making food.Target Users Only full time employees were interviewed for this project. The following items were taken into consideration when choosing interviewees. Size of restaurant: It is important to know the differences between how larger and smaller restaurants operate in order implement an adaptable system efficiently. Our choice of interviewees came from two different sized restaurants: a smaller one of 14 tables, and a larger one of 35 tables. Working type: There may be different views among employees and employers. Our interviewees held the following positions: business owner, cashier, waiter, waitress, and sushi maker Experience level: We wanted to view the problem from different levels of experience. More experienced employees could possible be too comfortable with the existing system and not want to change anything. Less experienced employees could have better ideas than more experienced ones. Meet the Employees We interviewed employees from two different restaurants which we will for now call Sushi Restaurant A and Sushi Restaurant B. Below are some descriptions of each employee interviewed: Sushi Restaurant Owner A • This person has 6 years of experience. He wants to have more time to start a new sushi fast food business but responsibilities of managing the restaurant keeps him busy. Additionally, he has been thinking of adapting to a computer management system. • He wishes to provide customers with better service: serving food faster, more greetings and communication between waiters/waitress and customers. He values keeping a close track of inventory, sales statistics, and records. Sushi Restaurant owner B • She has 20 years of experience and owns 2 sushi restaurants. She wants to start a new business but has no time due to her responsibilities with her currently owned restaurants. • She views shifting to a computer management system as a means of serving food faster, keep track of inventory more easily, a way to follow sales statistics, preventing employees from stealing money or stocked food (beef or fish), and reducing the number of employees needed.Waiter/Waitress A • This person has 3 years of experience. • Dislikes the occasional miscommunication with the chefs/sushi makers because it leads to wasted orders • Wants to serve food faster. Sushi Chef A • The chief sushi chef in the restaurant, has 11 years of experience. • He values his tools which allow him to arrange orders (up to 10 pending orders at a time). • He runs into miscommunications with the waiters and waitresses. Sometimes it verbal and sometimes it is written. Sushi Chef B • This person has 8 months of experience and is the assistant to the chief sushi chef. • He prioritizes easy ways to arrange orders and check inventory. • He deals with verbal and handwritten miscommunications with the waiters and waitresses. Contextual Inquiry - Interview Descriptions Process and environment The interviews with the two owners were conducted inside the sushi restaurant on the table (we could have observed the daily routines of the owners since the owners frequently paused the interview to do their tasks – ex. Job interviews, cashier check etc). The interviews with the two sushi men were done at sushi bars inside the sushi restaurant, watching the sushi men working. Then we interviewed the waitress outside the sushi bar after she is done with her work (she was too busy to be interviewed during work). However, we observed how she works when we were interviewing the owner. Our interviews were conducted by two people: one person asking questions mainly, and the other typing the rough idea or answer from the customers using a laptop, and possibly asking follow up questions when the other person ran out of questions to ask (we thought silence might distract the owner from focusing on our interviews). The interview starts by asking the owner full order process to until the food is delivered to the customers, and what are the pros and cons to use papers to keep track of money in the cashier. We asked the sushi men that are the pros and cons for using order slips (paper) to make sushi. For waitress, we asked what are the pros and cons for using order slips (paper) to receive order
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