Assignment 5: Evaluating A User Interface

Tablet Evaluation

For this assignment we will be using the DECIDE framework to conduct an evaluation study of a tablet interface for a self-service checkout kiosk. The kiosk will offer a new type of restaurant experience to users, by allowing them to order and customize a meal without having to interact with human waiters.

Our high-level goal for this evaluation is to determine whether our new interactive menu design is more enjoyable or efficient for customers to use compared with the traditional way of ordering a meal at a restaurant, via a waiter.

We want to ask questions that will guide and help us reach our above evaluation goals. What are customers' attitudes to tablet devices? Are they comfortable with using technology? Is it obvious how the interface works? Figuring out how to order a meal should be a quick, simple, painless task. Users do not want to feel helpless or frustrated. We also do not want to scare away potential users from the restaurant who may be technophobes. 

To evaluate the above questions, we will conduct an 'in-the-wild' field study. A field study would be most appropriate for evaluating how people react and respond to this new, innovative way of ordering food. We can collect data by using both direct and indirect observation. Cameras will be positioned in discrete locations to record people's first reactions and impressions with the tablet. We will be able to observe how users try to learn how the tablet interface works. When they exit the restaurant, we can ask them to answer a survey regarding their experience in order to gain more data. The survey will include questions such as:

1. What did you think when you first saw the tablets?
2. How easy (or difficult) was it to figure out how to order your meal through the tablet interface?
3. Were you comfortable using the tablets to order food today?
4. Would you continue ordering food this way? Or would you prefer a more traditional method, such as talking with a waiter?

There are a few practical issues we have to consider before conducting this evaluation. We want to ensure that we involve as many different types of users as possible in our evaluation, so that we can get the most balanced data possible. We need to decide if we want to provide the users with help if they get lost in the interface. If we do decide to allow the users to have access to help, how can we do it in a way so that they remain unaware of the fact that they are being observed? A benefit of having users order from a tablet placed at each table is that we don't need to worry about the users moving from place to place; our cameras can remain focused on one area. Hopefully the members of our evaluation team have the ethnographic experience necessary to successfully perform an in-the-wild field study as well.

We want to make sure that we don't do anything wrong while conducting our evaluations. We could ask users to sign a consent form before participating, but doing so might alter their behavior since they may (rightfully) assume that they are being monitored in some way. Another thing we can do instead is to hide the participant's identity by replacing his or her name with a code or pseudonym that should be stored separately from our data.

Data

We asked users to rate their experience in three ways, all within a scale of 1-10: how easy it was to figure out and use the tablet, how comfortable they were with using a tablet, and how much they preferred (or did not prefer) using the tablet over a traditional waiter. We also asked users a couple of follow-up questions so we could better understand their ratings. As you can see from the data, the majority of people enjoyed using the tablet interface to order their food. Some of the comments we received from the surveys praised how enjoyable and slick the interface was to use. Menu choices were clearly visible, and nothing was hidden behind layer upon layer of expanding menus. Users also loved how easy it was to customize and pay for an order. However, other users were not as happy with the customization options available. They felt that they were restricted to whatever options were listed on the screen, and would have preferred being able to talk with a waiter so that their order could be to their exact specifications. A few users also missed the social interaction aspects of ordering through a waiter; they believed that it was an integral aspect of the whole experience of going out to eat.

For the most part, it seemed like our tablet interface design was a success. Users were happy with the way it worked, and were willing to use tablets over talking with a waiter to order their food. However, our observations and surveys revealed a few areas that could still use improvement. Instead of giving users a pre-selected list of customization options to choose from, we can instead offer them a text box with which they can specify how they would like their order.

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