Assignment 1: Coffee machine

Group 1 Trygve Dam, s072046 - Rune Schostag, s062454 - Thomas Paulsen s112342 - Oliver Valsgaard, s082523 - Kelly Strong, s111255 - Thorbjrn Pasgaard - s110458 Users The users of the coffee machine can be divided into two groups: Paying and Non-paying users. Paying users have a credit card designed for the coffee machine and are able to order a cup of coffee for 4 credits per cup (4 kr). The cup they get for free from the table which the coffee machine is placed upon. Non-paying users seemed to be the most frequently kind of users of the coffee machine. They use the coffee machine for hot water which is free. They typically bring their own coffee powder or tea bags and use the provided cups to mix their own beverage. This allows them to get the beverages at a lower cost and to control the strength more easily. Example video: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/936392/Video%2006-09-11%2011.29.51.mov

Uses and Technical Specifications Sagio Purchase System A drink is purchased by a credit system provided by the Danish company called Sagio. The white card fits into a wallet, and is the same size as any other credit card. This card can be used as a; access key, identification card and a payment card. Each card is then readable based on its purpose. Sagio Reader Sagio card readers are a universal system, being that all of the Sagio cards can be used. The specific purpose of the card reader in this machine was to allow the coffee machine users to top-off their Sagio cards, and purchase drinks at a 4 kr. expense per drink. Located beneath the Sagio purchasing system are seven rows of buttons. The following is the detailed information about the functions of each button: Row1: The quantitative row. Three buttons in this row allowed the user to adjust: strength, sugar and cream. LEDs above each button allows the user to view which level they are at by (-, 0, +). Row2: The Kaffe row. Four buttons give options for the user to choose; black, with sugar, with cream or with sugar and cream. Row3: The Caf crme row. Four buttons give options for the user to choose; black, with sugar, with cream or with sugar and cream.

Row4: The Espresso row. Four buttons give options for the user to choose; black, with sugar, with cream or with sugar and cream. Row5: The Kaffespecialiteter row. Four buttons give options for the user to choose; Cappuccino,Wiener Melange, Caf au lait, or Espresso choco Row6: The Chokolade and Vand row. The Chokolade sections give the user the choice between Chokolade or Chocomilk. The Vand section of this row allows the user to have cold water. Row7: The Vand and Multibryg row. The first section, which is Vand, allows the user to have hot water. The second section of this row allows the user to use a multi-brew option. Buttons are large and easy to push, with high contrasting black and white color themes.

Pic: The user interface of the coffee machine. User interaction The coffee machine has a natural order of how the user should interact with the machine. The

order is: 1. Insert payment card 2. Place cup in cup holder 3. Selection of quantities via the quantitative buttons a. Strength, sugar and cream 4. Selection of coffee type 5. Take the filled coffee cup from the machine Feedback The machine has four ways of making feedback to the user: 1. Screen on Sagio card reader system a. For showing balance on the card 2. Screen on the coffee machine itself a. Showing info on price, selection of coffee type, etc. 3. Sound 4. Led lights at he quantitative buttons Failure points Choice of quantities There is no way for the customer to tell which coffee types have the option to choose the more or less quantities of strength, sugar and cream. The user will have to rely on his/her own experience to know or guess where the quantitative choice is available. If a selection of quantity is chosen for a coffee type, which does not allow for the specific choice, the machine will simply overrule the choice. Example: The user chooses extra strong, extra sugar and extra cream on the quantitative buttons and chooses the chocolate. What the machine will do is that it will only choose an extra strong chocolate without extra sugar and extra cream. Hence, the user does not get what he/ she expected. Example video: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/936392/IMG_0614.MOV Order of the buttons Some users might see that the most intuitive way to use the machine is to first choose which type of coffee, the strength and then whether it should contain cream, suger, both or none of them. The machine is not giving you any feedback on your choices, and the interaction is minimal. Special coffee can be ordered as well, but the customer is still able to specialize it with cream and suger eventhough the machine will not respond to the request. The coffee card is a rather new invention and changes how we do the payment. Before coins were used and the machine would not serve the coffee before getting these. The payment order has changed and the interface remains the same. This is critical as these changes result in a new interaction pattern, which the machine is not designed for. Conclusion In order to conclude on the above findings one could argue that the coffee machine implies too many functions. The user - friendly aspect has not been the main focus when designing/producing the product. Hence this may seem confusing for the common users.

A main issue to take into account is the amount of buttons available on the coffee machine. They simply entail too many options for the users, which often lead to incorrect use of the machine. As a consequence the users expectations are not fulfilled since they often end up with another sort of coffee than they ordered. For that reason it would be rational to enhance the functions of the coffee machine in order to imply more user-friendly and simplified functions. As it is found to be important that the product comply, with the expectations of the users and moreover fulfills their needs, so it wont be necessary for the user to bring their own powder coffee.