What's the wait?

Observations

We chose to observe the line at the La Prima coffee shop in Wean Hall. This particular coffee shop is extremely busy, especially between classes, with the line cutting through the atrium of Wean. We observed by giving tickets to students as they got in line with their drink order and the time, and writing in the time we collected them at the front of the line.

App idea

Our prototype is aimed towards reducing the La Prima line in order to open up this critical through-way for students who are trying to get to class. In order to do this, we designed an app. This app collects important data about wait times by having students start and stop a timer when they get in and out of line. That data is then displayed both at the front of the La Prima line and on the home screen of the app so that students can decide whether or not they have enough time to wait. The app can also take your order and tell you when it should be ready, that way the La Prima staff can start making drinks before people even get in line and the load can be spread out.

The layout of the app tries to embody the process of ordering a drink in real life as closely as possible. The menu screen gives a list of clickable options that is meant to look like the physical menu at La Prima. The next step, customizing the order, is also meant to recreate the process of ordering in real life by imitating the action of specifying the specific drink instructions typically given to a barista. Overall, the app is meant to be intuitive because it allows the customer to go through the steps of ordering a drink in real life as closely as possible.

Effect and User Response

The hope is that students will use this app to distribute the load and therefore reduce wait times. There are a few key pieces of behavior that are needed to keep it running.

The first is time inputs. The app is based off of students collecting time data, so if people just don't feel like collecting that data for us, they simply get locked out for a day. This means that the service of ordering ahead and seeing wait times is incentivized by contributing.

The second is ordering ahead. This is important because

 it is the feature that allows the La Prima staff to work more efficiently, spreading out the work across a slightly larger block of time. Of course some people may not use this feature, but it is pretty rewarding in and of itself because it means that you can choose a time when the line is shorter to actually pick up your order, significantly reducing your wait time.

The unintended consequence may potentially be an overflow of online orders first thing in the morning, leading to a back up of coffees sitting around and difficulty in giving them to their owners. The solution to this would be to put a limit on the number of online orders in a given period, temporarily disallowing them until some of the back up has cleared.

Interaction with Interactive Map Kiosks

We have also discussed with another group, CMU Interactive Map Kiosks, what collaboration could look like between our two groups. This would mean that their map displays could not only lead you to where a restaurant is on campus, but also tell you the wait time based on user input data. There is also the potential for a Map app, which would allow you to access the What's the Wait? page for each restaurant as well as the other info currently accessible through the kiosks. Of course, this collaboration would mean expanding from just La Prima to app pages for each dining location on campus.

Effect and User Response

This would allow for a much more interactive and streamlined experience for students, while promoting both intervention projects through the collaboration. The unintended consequence, however, may be inaccurate wait times due at smaller establishments due to few users. If there are only a few users and they enter data incorrectly, wait times could be very misleading. The app could account for that by displaying a default wait time if it does not have enough data.