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Overview
Overview
After completing our prototype, the next step was to test it. We did this be conducting four (one for each team member) usability studies. In which we observed participants using the prototype, giving them specified tasks, and asking questions after.
The script for the usability study is below.
The Script
The Script
Hello!
We are a group of researchers in CSS 478: Usability and User-Centered Design at UW Bothell. We have conducted research on how people who work in the restaurant industry collaborate using restaurant management systems (RMS), in our initial research, we identified flaws in current systems and ways we could improve on them.
Based on our initial research, we have created a prototype for additional collaborative features. We have created a prototype for a Beverage Customization Interface that can be implemented into existing RMS’s, which users in the initial phase suggested were lacking. During this interview, we want to look into how usable our prototype is so we know what improvements to make.
More specifically, we are hoping to have the following key questions answered from a user perspective:
What features were confusing for the user?
Did the user miss something that you expected them to do? Or did the user do something unexpected?
Does the user feel like this tool makes collaboration easier or harder? How?
How can we improve the prototype to increase usability?
During this interview, we will observe the following tasks to further examine:
Input customer’s drink order into RMS, and send it to the bar.
Check RMS for notification from the bartender.
Update inventory for manager.
Use the RMS to send a public or private direct message to the manager.
Thank you so much for being a participant in our research!
Notes
Notes
Here are the notes we took during our usability study. These notes were later analyzed and put together in our Usability Study Research Report. Further detail on our research findings can be seen on the Results page. The findings from my individual study can be read below.
Individual Usability Study Findings
Individual Usability Study Findings
The interview with participant #2 went smoothly and with an overwhelmingly positive result. The ‘user’ did not find anything that stood out as being confusing, their only confusion stemmed from the prototype being medium fidelity and not including all the features that a real-life RMS would. They were able to navigate the prototype with ease, and with very little direction from the tester, however, they did not use the edit inventory button, rather relied on the request to refill button. This participant felt that our prototype made collaboration a lot easier;. They were especially intrigued with the messenger and drink customization features, stating how helpful both would be in the RMS that they currently use. This participant had mentioned in a previous interview that they’d wish the RMS they used had a collaborative feature with the bar, and were pleased by our addition to the prototype. For our prototype as a whole, they found it very “helpful and intuitive to use”, stating that “nothing comes to mind” in terms of making changes to improve usability. The only comment that they had in this regard was our use of Google Slides for the prototype, it was not as interactive as it could be (inability to type directly on the slides in presentation mode). Participant #2 complimented our use of bland colors (black, white, gray), as well as our use of brighter colors to highlight certain features.
Specific to the drink customization feature, this participant highlighted how we included the base drink in the custom drink order, expressing how this makes it much more helpful for the server and bartender. However, they stated they’d rather have the custom drink interface include images of items to add/remove from each drink, in addition to the custom note to the bartender. They said that while what we had did the job and was “good as a prototype” it would be ideal to have pictures (letting the user add/remove ingredients from drinks) in addition to custom messages to the bar. Specific to our edit inventory feature, the participant noted that in many restaurants (such as the ones they’d worked at) not all employees have jurisdiction to add/remove from the inventory [only managers], and it could be removed from the prototype.
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