Over the first week of the quarter, our class had several introductory exercises and activities. On Tuesday we were shown around the Makerspace we will be working in for the quarter and given an idea of what to expect in the class.
On Thursday we dove into the Paper Prototyping process. After breaking up into groups, we designed and prototyped a tablet-based coffee ordering system according to specifications given to us by our professor, Andy Davidson. Working with Juan Cai and Jessica Wong, we drafted several ideas on a whiteboard before deciding on a final one, which we then built our paper prototype of.
The system was required to have three different types of drinks (Espresso, Macchiatto, and Cappuccino) in three different sizes (Normale, Grande, and Gigante), and to not only disallow add-ins like caramel or white chocolate, but to admonish users for trying to add them. Our design’s main screen had a wide button for the three drinks spaced vertically on the page. When the user chooses the drink they want, the buttons transform into the size options. After a size is chosen, they are returned to the main screen. There is a persistent ‘order’ tab on the right side of the page which keeps a running total of the user’s order and lets them check out.
Regarding the ‘add-ins’ part, we wanted to find a way of including the admonishment without offering fake drink options baiting people into coming across the message. Instead, since the three drinks offered fill the vertical screen space, we thought that people looking for more than those three drinks would try to scroll down the page to find them and put a message below the fold that doubled as a mission statement for the fictional cafe.
We conducted a usability test afterward which inspired some subtle tweaks to the system (having the order tab show the current total on it being one), but I think the end result was a very good, usable design.