Design suggestion for a Point of Sale system for the café industry

Abstract: An order at a café involves mainly the customer, the café worker, and the cash register. Today, cash registers use a system called a Point of Sale (POS) system that manages the registration of an order as well as the payment. Because of this it is crucial for the tradition of “fika” in Sweden. Customer satisfaction is dependent on the efficiency of the ordering process, and it is therefore important to design the interface of the POS-system in a user-friendly way so that the ordering process can be streamlined. The purpose of this study was to develop a suggestion for the design of a POS-system that could streamline the ordering process.   The study was divided into three phases: user research, design, and evaluation. The user research phase had a qualitive approach and was performed with contextual inquiry and semi-structured interviews with the goal to identify types of orders that are perceived as inefficient. Analysis of the data with an affinity diagram identified two types of orders: Orders with allergens and Orders with indirect, and these were further analyzed with hierarchical task analysis. Based on the results from the first phase, the design phase included specifying requirements, creating wireflows and the development of an interactive Hi-Fi prototype. The proposed prototype was evaluated by user tests made up by five tasks and measuring the variables expediency and satisfaction for these user tests. Additional qualitative data was collected with post-test questions. One of the two set minimal levels of acceptance of the usability measures was exceeded. Data collected with post-test questions were divided into categories of the three developed main functions of the prototype as well as appreciated features and areas of improvement. Conclusion was that an interface of a POS-system for the café industry probably can streamline the ordering process by using a user-focused approach of research, however this research must be made by the companies developing the POS-systems.