

Never underestimate how much people desire to be spoon-fed - anuleczka
http://charliehoehn.com/2009/12/06/feed-me/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+charliehoehn+(Hoehn%27s+Musings

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shalmanese
It's ridiculous to me how persistently poor receipt usability is. At a
minimum, this is how I would like to see my ideal receipt:

* Sales tax integrated into the dish price rather than a sum at the end (or if this is not possible, at least an indicator of what the local sales tax rate is on the receipt)

* Items split up into categories: drinks, apps, mains etc.

* A percentage tip guide on both the receipt & the credit card statement (ie: 15% = $3.45, 18% = ...)

* A form area on the back for writing out how to split across multiple credit cards

* menu prices engineered towards nice round numbers post-tip (if I get a $51 bill, I'm inclined to tip $9 to make it an even $60. If I get a $52 bill, I'm inclined to tip $8 to make it an even $60).

At most, I've seen 2 of these features on any one receipt, most receipts have
0.

I think the most trying use case receipt usability needs to accommodate for is
the birthday scenario:

A group of 7 people are celebrating someone's birthday. They order drinks,
apps for the table to share, everyone has a main course and 3 people have
desserts. The cost of the birthday boy's meal is being split among the rest of
them. there are 2 couples who are paying jointly & 3 singletons.

Such a scenario is never going to be trivial but it could be a hell of a lot
less painful than it is currently.

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DaniFong
That's being spoon-fed? This would be useful when I'm out for dinner with my
gaggle of Math, Physics and Engineering PhDs. Splitting the tab is rarely the
most interesting conversation to be had...

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AgentConundrum
I've heard that single bills are the norm in the US (I don't actually know if
this is true, however), but up here in Canada this is a solved problem.

When you order, you simply tell your server who is paying for what (e.g.
"separate bills", "I'm paying for her, those two are separate"). If you don't
say anything, they tend to ask before giving you your bill. It's pretty
simple.

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zach
That's correct, but not the whole story.

At chain restaurants in the US, we get a single bill in two inches of space
and 10 inches of space with laborious instructions on how to complete their
customer satisfaction survey.

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tree_of_item
I don't like the baby bird analogy, or the use of the term "spoon-fed" here.
It makes it sound as if people should be ashamed for wanting things to be
simpler.

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godDLL
That's just your own negative connotation. The man is using short, concise and
clear terms to describe a trend and it's anecdotal evidence.

Coroners shouldn't stop calling a stiff "a body" just because it sounds
mortifying to you. It's what it is.

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ssp
No, the word _spoon-fed_ has negative connotations of helplessness and apathy,
just as _dumbed-down_ or _pointy-clicky_ have. If that kind of words come to
mind, or if you think users are _lazy_ when they don't read what you write, or
refuse to fill out a seven-field registration form, then you are going to
design bad user experiences and your competitors will beat you.

This particular writer is probably just using it as link-bait though.

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godDLL
How is being an application user negative? How is being helpless negative?

Whatever you write, it solves a problem for someone somewhere. And the less
work they have to do to leverage your solution, the better your solution will
work for them.

Here are your many words, confusing, lengthy non-empathic. Or you could just
say "spoon-feed the solution to your user".

It's about caring, not about attacking or disrespect. The negative
connotations are _yours alone_ , you're still reading too much into this.

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JohnnyBrown
POS (restaurant cash register/ordering software) is a field particularly ripe
for innovation. I suspect there isn't much conversation going on between
programmers and the service industry.

