Wagamama
British based Japanese restaurant chain
Project
Redesign of handheld ordering system
Brief
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Reduce new employee turnover by making the system simpler to learn and use
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Increase productivity by increasing the speed of service
My Role
I was part of a change team put together to redesign the handheld ordering system. I carried out contextual inquiries, worked alongside developers to design the interface and carried out testing all of which was done with an iterative approach.
Contextual Inquiry
Undertaking numerous restaurant site visits to observe staff members using the current system, to better understand pain points and also the user environment. Carrying out listening groups to further build on this insight and then creating user journey maps with the main issues to overcome highlighted.
Issues to overcome
1
​System data not up to date
Historic items in the system that are no longer sold
2
Modifying menu items is time consuming
There is a huge library of ingredients in alphabetical order to go through before you find what you need.
3
Modifying menu items can cause confusion and delays
Ingredient names are not consistent with the menu and recipe sheets which causes confusion.
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The system allows staff to request ingredients to be removed even if they aren’t in the dish to begin with. This causes confusion when the chefs read the ticket.
5
No ability to order drinks first without sending the order and closing the table
No way to send part of the order first (ie drinks) and allow the staff member to continue ordering without the staff member having to send the order and reopen the table to continue the order. This slows down service.
6
No way of knowing time since order was placed
7
Some text is too small and difficult to read on screen
4
Ordering not user-friendly for new employees
Each dish is numbered and the system requires staff to enter the number of the dish to order. New employees find it difficult to learn all the numbers, especially of drinks, which causes delays in service and reduces user confidence.
Solutions
1
Data clean up
Carrying out a clean up of all the data within the system to ensure only items in the current menu are displayed.
2
Menu item modification function simplified
Recategorised ingredients into groups (proteins, carbs etc.) as the preferred option of the users. We had a group of users agree on the names of all ingredients to give consistency.
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A toggle function introduced to make it really clear what ingredients are in a given dish. This function also meant that only items included in a dish could have a ‘remove’ modifier applied to them.
3
Search for menu item by name
Giving users the ability to search a dish by name if they are unsure of the dish number. This also aids user learning, by informing them of the dish number once they have searched it by name.
4
Drinks ordering by name
Creation of a drinks ordering section where users can locate drinks within categories instead of having to remember individual numbers.
5
Send + Stay
Giving users the ability to order drinks first, by pressing ’Send + Stay’ the drinks order is sent to the bar whilst users continue to order food. This speeds up the time the guest receives their 1st drink, increasing guest satisfaction and the chance of 2nd drinks order.
6
Order time stamp
Introducing a time stamp every time the user sends part of an order, providing the ability to ensure optimum service times for customers.
7
Screen layout and text size
Redesign of the screen layout including consistent text sizing to ensure ease of use for users.
