Restaurant Checkbook - Product Redesign
Product Design - Figma / Physical Prototyping - 6 weeksHaving worked as a restaurant server for many years, I recognized first-hand a reality effecting guests all too well: forgetting your credit card at a restaurant. When my team in a human system’s engineering course was tasked with crafting a product redesign, we found this scenario to be largely empathized with.
Through carefully breaking down product interactions, developing personas, and emphasizing facets of cognition, our team was able to enhance restaurant checkbook features and develop the resulting prototypes. Our goal in doing so was to command the user’s attention during the end stages of dining out, subsequently reducing the frustration of forgetting one’s credit card.
Restaurant guests can benefit from external checkbook indicators to bypass the distraction state involved in forgetting their credit card.
Meet the users
We needed to start somewhere.
Our team became inquisitive about our stakeholders - who they are, how they feel, and how they remember. As a team we were tasked with writing a 15 question survey to learn more about our users and their needs across a total of eight restaurant diner participants. Having hypothesized that guests may forget their credit card in the checkbook due to lack of external indicators, we strived to understand if our concerns matched the users’ true needs.
This led our team to become curious around which distracting factors were most prevalent while utilizing the checkbook. The most commonly reported distracting factors included conversing with others and gathering belongings. These external actions aligned with our problem statement, alluding to the hypothesis that external indicators may benefit bypassing the distraction state.
To our surprise, perceived difficulty in remembering their credit card had an inverse relationship with the reality; of all participants, 7 out of 8 users had not forgotten their card. We dissected the data further, desiring to identify protective factors and memory strategies our users held in place.
Heuristic evaluation
Our team sifted through the feedback provided, developing questions along the way - what features contributed to the interaction challenges? What product-user harmony must occur for optimal usage? What helps? What hinders? And above all - why?!
We conducted a heuristic evaluation of restaurant checkbooks, keenly observing the features and rating them according to how well each served the user. Of these concerns, we found several areas to be catastrophic: visibility of system status, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, and help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors.
We found across checkbooks, the visibility features impacted the error and recognition concerns. The credit card is hidden when misplaced in the checkbook, yet simultaneously is hidden by the receipt times when placed correctly. We noted that the solid coloring also hindered visibility. We placed this idea into our back pocket to review when later developing our wireframes.
Task Analysis
Our team recognized that checkbook interactions are so multifaceted, involving multiple stakeholders and interplaying exchanges. In order to better visualize the ergonomics we created a diagram, breaking down each actionable task several subtasks.
Perception, Cognition, Action (PCA) Analysis
In addition to each physical action taken by the user, we became inquisitive around the perception and cognition elements involved in decision making. For each element we identified potential use errors, consequences, and iterated design features.
This was a lightbulb moment for our team, realizing checkbook misusage is less about the physical action itself and more about all that comes prior internally. Mental models, personal patterns and preferences, as well as external indicators all synthesize for the personal interaction experience of each stakeholder - both restaurant guests and staff alike. Furthermore, we were able to recognize that these nuanced interactions all provided a variety of outcomes during the passage of the checkbook between stakeholders.
Personas
In order to best understand the varying scenarios in which credit cards may be forgotten upon retrieval, our team created three personas based on the three distinct usage scenarios reported: user has never forgotten their credit card, user has almost forgotten their credit card but never has, and user has forgotten their credit card. These personas were carefully crafted utilizing proportional survey data and heuristic concerns.
User has never forgotten their credit card
User has forgotten their credit card
User has almost forgotten their credit card but never has
Journey Map
Our team utilized the Leah persona to create a journey map. Leah was chosen as she was the user who forgot her credit card, and we strived to gain a deep understanding of both her psyche and the environment she applies it to. Integrating the task analysis, PCA analysis, and the information within Leah’s persona, our team sought to create a visual journey of the internal and external processes she experienced while paying with her credit card. Through this intricate journey map our team was better able to empathize with Leah and dig deeply into the consequences of her experience.
Low-fidelity wireframes & mid-fidelity mockups
Initial wireframes and mockups
Drawing from our research thus far, our team individually came up with potential designs to benefit our personas. Reflecting upon the heuristic concerns, we experimented with both the clear materials and LED external indicators that could afford increased visibility of the credit card. We further experimented with additional features, such as designated pockets, written prompting, and card insertion location to experiment with error concerns and user control and freedom. These initial designs provided a baseline for design features we could further develop.
Iterations
We synthesized the most agreed upon features relevant to our personas. Within the iterations we prioritized visibility of system status through refining the placement of clear materials and incorporating a credit card frame visible while the checkbook is open or closed. Two iterations of this were presented, both a solid bright colored frame and an LED light frame to account for the budget and feasibility of the restaurant stakeholders.
Through adjusting the orientation of the clear credit card pocket to horizontal we strived to optimize the user freedom of card insertion, reducing the internal points of stress reported initially amongst user survey data. Icons and written prompts were ultimately ruled out, as they were not intuitive or relevant across all points of interaction.
Final Prototypes
Through these iterations we honed our designs even further. I utilized cardstock, tape, and clear scrapbook sheets to transform our static ideas to life through two physical prototypes.
Prototype 1: Colored Credit Card Frame
We decided to feature a horizontal clear pouch, affording the user the opportunity to insert their credit card vertically or horizontally. Coupled with the single clear internal folder, the user or restaurant stakeholder may insert the card without fear of it becoming hidden behind solid colored folds. Additionally, providing the singular clear fold on the right hand side with the horizontal pocket on the left hand side prevents the receipt from covering the card should it be inserted properly in the pocket. This design therefore eliminates the initial concern of poor visibility during both proper and improper usage, and the subsequent user control and error concerns that had resulted.
Design features of the bright card frame, clear horizontal credit card slot, and clear receipt slot
Prototype 2: LED Credit Card Frame
A common problem amongst the personas was the ability to bypass a heavy distraction state. While conversing, handling children, or gathering belongings there was much on their minds and in their physical presence. We attempted as a team to combat this by taking our previous design a step further, creating an LED light credit card frame. We alerted the user to their card being present or not present in the credit card slot through the surrounding red and green frames respectively. In providing the visibility of this frame among both the open and closed checkbook states, we strived to afford the user additional opportunities to remember their credit card with ease.
Iterated design features of the light up card frame, altering between red (card detected) and green (no card detected)
Limitations and Future Roadmap
A large portion of advantageous data is lost in primarily evaluating Leah’s perspective of forgetting her credit card. Several areas detailed in the initial survey were not incorporated, including reported protective factors and memory associations. Knowing 7 out of 8 participants had not forgotten their credit card, this information would be highly relevant to enhancing an intuitive user experience.
No user research was conducted amongst the restaurant stakeholders who hold an equal stake in checkbook interaction. Conducting an ethnographic study would be beneficial to observe the stakeholders’ intentional or unintentional usage patterns amongst the checkbooks, and exploring how their mental models could be utilized to their benefit.
Relying on color for LED lights may be intuitive for many, yet red-green colorblindness is commonplace in the world. Therefore the redesign should not rely solely on color dependent information and be cognizant to accessibility. Providing an additional external indicator that the card has been removed, through visual cues or haptics, may be beneficial to look into during future research.
After completing subsequent follow-up research on the paper prototypes, a high-fidelity prototype could be crafted.
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