Went down to our on-campus Panda Express this evening for supper. It’s been a while since I was there last, and things had changed a little (new overhead menus and different selection). Last time I was there, I could just walk up to the line, pick up a tray, and immediately tell the person behind the counter which side I wanted, followed by the entrees I wanted. It was understood that I wanted what’s now called a Panda Plate, and if I picked 2 entrees, I got the 2-entree price, and likewise if I named a third entree – unless I said I wanted something other than a Plate.

Tonight, I picked up a tray and did like I always did – told the lady I wanted fried rice – but then she asked me if I wanted a Panda Bowl or a Plate (she might have said A La Carte, I don’t remember). This understandably caught me off-guard, so I proceeded to examine the menus above to see what on earth she was talking about. I just wanted the normal 2-entree thing; didn’t she know that?!

Now, here’s where my grade of F is manifested. As I started perusing the menus, she just stood there, waiting on me to tell her what I wanted. If I had given her a response reasonably quickly, that would be fine, but I didn’t; I stood there looking at it for about 10-15 seconds because I wasn’t really in a thinking mode. In this situation, an employee (I’m not sure of the proper title for one who serves food from behind a counter) who really knows what they’re doing would have waited for a response for no more than 5 seconds, and then pointed out the meaning of the two options she had expressed to me verbally.
I think that sounds reasonable.

The whole transaction ended up feeling a bit awkward to me.
/fail

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 20:07 and is filed under Design and Usability, Fails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.