[haswell]

The other side of this coin is that many people take forever at the digital kiosk. If there aren’t enough kiosks and the location is a busy one, I’ll actively avoid that place.

I might as well figure out how to use their website/app at that point.

But all of this leads us further down the path of abstracting/hiding the reality of the purchasing decisions we make. I can’t help but feel this all chips away at our collective humanity.

[dheera]

Yeah a new amazing matcha drink/ice cream place opened at my area. There is always a long line out the door, so I went there to check it out. It was amazing, but the real reason for the long line is that the kiosk wanted an SMS confirmation to place the order.

There was a very tiny "skip" button but most people ahead of me probably didn't see it.

[BeetleB]

You've never been stuck in a line where the guy at the front is spending forever?

[haswell]

I have been stuck in those lines.

But the average time taken by each and every person at self serve lines seems to be higher, because not only does the person need to decide what they want to order, they also need to figure out the UI at the same time. And there seems to be more choice paralysis when the primary way the customer consumes the menu is the moment they walk up to the kiosk.

In a traditional line, half of the ordering process is typically handled by an individual already trained to rapidly enter the order details, and in most cases, the person ordering knows what they want by the time it’s their turn.

These kiosks are about optimizing cost, and just about everything about the end user experience seems worse.