Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Dominos: Changing the feedback model
I don’t know about you, but the idea of ordering food online has had promise, but often falls flat. When I lived in Boulder I would order from The Sink, but they would call you back and confirm the order, which kinda defeated the point.
If you don’t get a call back though, then you wonder… “hmm is someone on the other end of this web site thing? Are they REALLY going to bring my food!”
Dominos has done the right thing. They give you feedback, but not in the annoying way. After you put in an order online you can watch the entire process, so you feel like you know exactly what is happening without talking to a person until the doorbell rings:
3.9 rating from 22 votes
I saw this feature a few weeks ago and was really impressed with it. It’s Tuesday…
OK, the tracker is new to me and think it’s cool. But smooth ordering process is available at joeys.de for a long time now.
No doubt that Domino’s ordering interface looks great, and provides good feedback to the JS enabled user. But, this begs the question, should fundamental functionality (ordering) completely exclude user’s browsing without JS disabled? I’m not trying to start the whole progressive enhancement with JavaScript debate here, but it seems that this interface unnecessarily excludes people from giving Dominos their $$$.
I don’t think it excludes people from ordering by not allowing javascript support. Something like 2% of web users don’t have javascript support, and my guess that is mobile phone browsers. I always see web developers complain about relying on javascript (which I DONT do), but I have yet to see any statistics to say it’s a legitimate concern.
That said, this looks like a cool interface. I have ordered online from Papa Johns before, have never had any issues (yet). On a side note, I’m glad Dominos is bringing back the 30 min pizza delivery. It used to be that if it wasn’t there in 30 min it was free, now it seems every place gives you at least a 45 min wait.
Yes really simple, easy and great.
You would like to order a pizza, only to interact with this funny interface!!
Heh. I recommended this to one of their top-level guys in a phone call about customer service about 6 years ago.
It was after I called my roadside assistance service for a breakdown once and they sent me a series of text messages as they got closer and closer to my location - I thought the same thing would be great to know when my pizza was being cooked, being sent out etc.
Nice to see it finally happening…
Could someone check in to writing a javascript library that hooks in to their API? I would like my own webpage that can be used to order pizza. Then I could open the page from my mythTV box. I could conceivable order a pizza with the push of a button on my remote control…. Man, I am lazy.
I’ll be ordering a pizza just to check out the cool web app!
A nice gimmick, but you’ve got to wonder how accurate it is. Are the staff in the kitchen really updating each pizza’s status when they take it out of the oven and put it in a box? “We packaged your order and placed it in a warm HeatWave(tm) bag at 5:17PM” would certainly suggest so. What a mammoth overhead for the staff working at the outlets though! Even if it’s all barcoded and scanned as it moves down the line, it’s still daft.
Dominos has got has the same thing going here in Australia too (albeit with a different interface) and I think it’s great! It accepsts coupon codes (current codes can easily be found online) and it remembers prior orders, so those with a favourite meal combination can order with a couple of clicks.
Now they just need to do something about their actual pizzas…
Is that really cool?? whenever you want to track your order, you should turn on your PC that is connected to the Internet.
I just think this system is necessary, but it can be the best UX.
Domino has better offers both “Pizza Tracker” and some kinda system that sends SMS when an order is placed.
Multinationals for alienation!
You need gimmicks to cover up the crap you are selling. Excerpts from their ingredients list:
Artificial Color…BHA…BHT…Sodium Benzoate…Polysorbate 80…Artificial Flavors…Yellow #5
(http://www.dominos.com/home/menu/ingredients.jsp#brook_list)
waving the order/label through a barcode scanner at each step of the process will add a total of about 4 seconds to the overall assembly…
YESS!! as a matter of fact it is alll true. i work in a domino’s in new york.
here’s how it works. well of course 1) is gonna be automatic. as soon as you order it comes on a screen in the makeline. as soon as the worker makes it, he presses “due” (ENTER) on the keyboard and clears the screen. number 2 is done.
it then goes into the oven. the oven is timed exactly. so you just wait the same amount of time every time. unless you wanted it well done or lightly done. that covers step 3.
now after the food was “due”, it goes to another computer. the dispatch computer. each delivery guy is given a dispatch address to go to. when an address/order is given to a delivery guy, the “box” aka step 4 is complete. then he needs to take any drinks or food that’s ready made and heads out.
hope this clears things up…