1. WAITer: Waiting Assistant Information Technology
The WAITer system operates on pocket pc devices, such as the HP Jornada. It is designed for restaurant servers to increase the efficiency of the processes in the life cycle of an order, which begins when the customer is seated and ends when the bill is processed.
Group 1:
Andrei Boutyland, Neetin Gulati, Ha Nguyen, Randy Shoopman

2. Quick Presentation Overview
Current Problems & Proposed Solutions
Representative Tasks & the GUI
Transition From Lo-Fi to Hi-Fi
Development Technology
5. Design Process & Lessons Learned

3. Current Problems & Proposed Solutions
paper & pen order- taking process is inefficient
bills processed from stationary register
face to face communication w/staff can be challenging
servicing multiple tables can become confusing
Solutions:
wireless order submission & order status updates
bills processed at table or anywhere else
wireless messaging
electronic organization of current customer load, with built-in work-flow
* Representative Tasks *

4. Representative Tasks & the GUI
quick,
color-coded
table links
table status,
menu,
order summary,
billing
user log-out
employee
homepage
(tips, schedule,
etc.)
wireless
messaging
help utility

5. Transition from Lo-Fi to Hi-Fi
“order” tab changed to “view order” due to confusion with “menu” tab
associating ordered items w/ individuals removed since it slowed down the order-taking process
messaging utility now has option to use keyboard input in addition to handwriting recognition
messaging utility increased from 1 to 2 frames due to space required by pop-up keyboard
vertical toolbar merged w/ horizontal toolbar
“flat” menu improved using eVB’s treeview ctrl

6. eVB: Development Technology
Positives
easy to learn & use
quick development time
simple code transfer to HP Jornadas
forms nicely support individual development of features
has enough functionality to implement our GUI
Negatives
eVB IDE crashes on occasion
graphics limitation
(8-bit bitmaps)
can’t define object classes
can’t dynamically instantiate objects
(I.e. Collection)

7. Design Process & Lessons Learned
Contextual Inquiry & Task Analysis
servers have an average of 5 – 12 customers at once, depending on type of restaurant
while the entire meal is ordered at once, each course must be submitted to the kitchen at different times
ability to take orders quickly is very important
Lo-Fi Prototyping & Usability Testing
difference b/w “menu” & “order” tabs was confusing
associating ordered items w/ individual customers slowed down the ordering process
must include ability to customize all menu items
Hi-Fi Prototyping
minor changes to GUI design based on features & limitations of eVB technology
eVB is a good thing