What? Design?

I’m certainly no expert on design and don’t claim to be, however it’s something that I have a growing interest in. Over the past few years, I’ve come to really appreciate good design.

For a long time I think my hesitation with design is a perceived vanity of it. However, good design can be a very powerful motivator for effective communication. Good design makes everyone’s lives easier, good design makes users feel better. Good design, ironically, can mean people pay no attention to design but yet are profoundly and positively impacted by it. Yes, I know how many times I just used “good design”.

Wawa, I’m looking at you

Here’s a recent example of design fail. Apologies that the picture is not perfect, but I think it conveys the problem pretty well. This is the screen that deflates my excitement for my Wawa cheesesteak.

The obvious

There is no YES button. There is also no explanation why there is no yes button. I don’t know if that button never shows up and this is perpetually like that or if the cooks can indicate “Oops, we’re out of onions”. Regardless, there is absolutely no reason why the kiosk should ask if I would like something and give only on option. If this is unavailable, why does this screen show at all?

The temptation

Possibly the absolute worst part about this is that if I had never had the option for sauteed onions, I wouldn’t be too irritated that I couldn’t have them. I prefer my onions cooked, but if raw onions were my only option, I could deal with that. In one fell swoop this screen has indicated that I can have some delicious sauteed onions on my cheesesteak and also indicated that I can’t. Don’t tease me, machine ordering kiosk, not funny.

TL;DR

Sheetz is better. Or is that too harsh?

I’m just not quite sure how the people who develop this software thought there should ever be a workflow where you have this type of “option” screen come up. I hope that in the next iteration they put more focus on the design and user experience. I could also rant about the shameless integration of food add-ons that attack the user near the end of ordering, but I shall leave that for another day…