Pizza Restaurant PoS Delivery Software

Restaurant PoS Software

Software Development Since 1986

In Use At Over 3,000 Restaurants

Pizza Restaurant PoS Usability Study

Fewer Well Categorized Choices

CONFIRMED: Too many choices on the PoS screen leads to confusion and memory block.

The most popular study in the history of psychology found the mind gets overwhelmed when faced with more than between 5 and 9 choices.

A more recent study concluded the number of choices may be less than 5.

Restaurant staff with 6 to 24 months experience were having trouble entering a PoS order.

The problem was memory related, evidenced by their finger going around in a circular motion.

When overwhelmed, the brain shuts down the path to long term memory.

Solution: Fewer Choices

Categorized Into "Chunks"

In 2002 we developed a very simple PoS order entry with a maximum of 9 choices.

Quizno's PoS menu. Our Restaurant PoS was used by 3 of 80 stores in Quizno's trial delivery contest. The 3 stores finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Research found categorization improves memory.

This keypad required the menu to be well categorized.

Now 10 Choices Side by Side Columns.

Improved Entry Time Over 100%

While 9 menu keys has been a phenomenal success, many did not understand the concept.

A very common remark was, "How can I enter my menu when there are only 9 keys?". Those that tried were very pleased they did.

Because the mind can cope with 9 keys better than 60, the 9 key method was very simple to learn, use, and remember.

Categorization is key. When words are related as in a sentence, up to 16 words can be remembered. When words are random or unrelated only up to 6 words can be remembered.

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This menu has 8 main categories (column 1 left hand side). Six would be better. Once a choice is made then column 2 opens up with a new set of choices. From column 2 on, all the choices are related. Improved long term memory.

This keeps the premise that fewer choices are better, and everyone grasps the concept.

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Columns Created Major Speed Benefit

With the Keypad style menu when an item was added to the ticket, it pops back to the Main Menu.

In the menu displayed here, if someone orders multiple Sandwiches you need not drill down to Sandwiches again. Seconds count. This can shave seconds off the ticket entry time.

Each column can be menu item selections, or open a new set of choices.

Any viable key may be selected. When I menu Item is selected all visible key choices remain the same.

When a selection opens a new set of choices, only the columns to the right change.

Chunk Theory and The Magic Number 7

Most Cited Study in History of Psychology

Random, uncategorized, or large chunks of information are not easily accepted and the mind can become overwhelmed. When the mind feels overwhelmed it shuts down, rejects the information not allowing it to enter long-term memory. This includes people entering your customer orders.

The benefits of fewer menu choices are faster and accurate orders. Both, in fact, are proven major factors in customer satisfaction. See also our Customer Satisfaction Study.

Basically, the mind can't bear information presented in an unrelated or random way and favors small categorized groupings. The mind prefers chunks as proven in the widely accepted "Chunk Theory".

The Magic Number Seven There's quite a lot of evidence to back up the principles behind chunk theory; possibly the most famous is a piece of research for the U.S. Navy (and the reason phone numbers are 7 digits). The research was titled;

"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information." George A. Miller, Harvard University. First published in The Psychological Review.

The research showed that the mind needs to use, "a process of organizing or grouping the input into familiar units or chunks." It was found that the maximum number of things the human mind could comfortably remember or work with was limited to 5-9 things. With the mid point being the magic number 7.

So Easy Even with No Training In a follow up study we selected people with little computer experience, various educational, intellectual, socio economic, and cultural backgrounds to test our order entry system. The results were, that given any of the above stated backgrounds, every person was able to enter an order with no training what so ever. All orders were completed accurately and in timely fashion.

References