FD-POS
fD POS SYSTEM
FD-POS
fD POS SYSTEM
Design a POS system for a bakery chain company.
POS in the stores
Back Office: product management
Self Order for customers
Overview
Fay da Bakery is an expanding chain based in New York. Unlike a standard franchise business, the mother company handles all the management for all store business. Part of the headquarters is dedicated to Fay da Manufactory, which handles most of the supplies for stores. For bread and buns, the store bakers prepare all kinds of dough and mix them with different ingredients provided by the central kitchen. The company has maintained its chain business model for 28 years to control its bread quality.
Challenge
With the number of new stores on the rise, it is getting harder for them to manage all stores, in terms of sales, employee shifts, inventory as well as order flow between the headquarter and stores. They were seeking for a customized and powerful POS system allowing them to stay on top of every store business without physically being there on a daily basis.
A new store in Connecticut
The Team
When the project kicked off, we did not have a product manager. My role was beyond a UX Designer. I needed to define the scope of the work, understand the client’s requirements, consider company business goals, and create the product roadmap. Since we are a small team, to deliver the project within the given time was a challenge. I constantly communicated with the client and other stakeholders while working closely with developers. I wanted to ensure the project ran smoothly and everyone was on the same page.
Solution
Based on the business model of Fay Da Bakery and my research, the task is comprised of two parts. We needed to build a cloud-based Point-of-Sales system that empowers the headquarters to manage stores in all their aspects and streamline their operation. When a cashier takes orders from customers, the data will be transferred to the Cloud via the local server in the store, and the manager in the headquarters will see the data reflected on the sales report. Likewise, if the manager in the headquarter changes the price of a product, it will also be reflected on the POS menu in the store. The flow is shown in the chart below.
In addition to the POS section, inventory management also plays an essential role in this cloud-based system. I will dive into it later. Here I will more focus on the store POS design and Product management from the headquarter.
Product Roadmap
The product development period: March, 2018 to May, 2019
Process
FD-POS User research
Research Highlights
FD-POS User research
Research Highlights
Interview and User Test
In the various phases of development, I conducted many rounds of interviews with the client, their store managers and cashiers. Here, I only summarized the key points from stakeholder interviews, user interviews, and user tests regarding their existing POS System.
The old POS System
Stakeholder Interviews:
Three formal ones and many rounds of informal interviews and discussionsUser Interviews:
I interviewed general managers at the office, store managers, bakers, and cashiers at different branchesUser Tests for the existing POS
With cashiers at the branches and general users
Competitor Analysis
There are many POS systems in the market. To learn what works well for users and what doesn’t, I looked into different competitors’ POS and conducted several analyses. I evaluated their features, functionalities, usabilities, user flows, and user interfaces. Some are easy to use but have few functions, while others are powerful but too complicated. Due to the fact that many of our users are not particularly tech-savvy, being simple and user-friendly is vital. Being powerful is good, but I would focus on whether the features are relevant and useful to the end users and can meet the client’s business needs.
There are so many elements to consider in order to build a good POS in stores. Since taking orders is the most important task for the store staff, I would like to show the Heuristic Analysis for the usability of this task.
FD-POS User Journey
User Journey Highlights
FD-POS User Journey
User Journey Highlights
Primary Persona
Pain Points
Hard to find menu items
Need to use a calculator to serve customers when the internet goes down
Long customer line and slow POS
Need to call the office to void orders
Not able to understand customers’ requests for pre-order cakes
Pain Points
Need to create or update the same POS menu for individual stores
Hard to track sales and inventory count for all stores
The breakdown of customers’ order types are not accurate
Spend too much time on Excel and paper work
Lose business record when the store internet goes down
User Journey
In the POS system, I have created many user scenarios and flows. Here I would like to demonstrate two key scenarios: taking a customer order and creating a menu.
THE bAKERY scenario: TAKE ORDER
When a customer brings a tray of food to the cash register, Lisa needs to serve him/her.
The OFFICE scenario: CREATE a drink MENU
The company decide to add coffee products to their existing menu. April needs to update the POS menu and apply to all stores.
FD-POS design highlights
Design Highlights
FD-POS design highlights
Design Highlights
Feature Prioritization
Due to the time and development constraints, I worked with developers and PMs to decide which features should be our MVP on the store POS. Features at the top right section are more important and required the developer to spend less time. They were considered to be built at this time. However, due to the client’s requests, we also chose to build some important features that required more work from the team. As for the reward, it requires a standalone system to support the function. We will build it or integrate other company’s API with our POS at the next phase.
Feature prioritization
This is for POS system
MSCW
This is for POS system
Design Development
2. Product management: Menu item key screen
1.POS: Take Order key screen development
POS Device User Interface
Back office User Interface
Key screens for Back office
Back office Home page
Report Landing page
Product Item page
Inventory page
Customer Self-Order (Tablet)
Outcome
For the stores
With intuitive navigation and a clean design, store cashiers can easily take customers' orders and find menu items without difficulty.
Staff can spend less time on customized cake orders because customers can create them using the self-order tablet.
Store managers can easily order inventory items without paperwork and review their actual stock QTY without missing or duplicating orders.
The store workflow has been streamlined, and staff can focus on serving customers. As a result, store customer service has improved.
For the headquarters
The general manager can stay on top of all the store sales in every aspect.
The general manager can easily create new menu items and categories and modify prices.
The HR manager can manage their employees’ timesheets across all stores without any paper handling.
The inventory department is fully aware of all the stock quality and item waste rates across all stores and approves or edits the orders from stores.
Overall, the back office system has optimized the office workflow and improved the office managers’ work efficiency and productivity.
Product demo
POS: Take Order
Product Management: Add a menu item
FD-POS User Test& Iteration
Usability Test & Iteration
FD-POS User Test& Iteration
Usability Test & Iteration
POS Home Screen Iteration
For the POS Home screen, we had a few rounds of internal discussions regarding the flow. We asked 20 restaurant owners to do A/B Tests on our prototype. The result was even. In the end, we chose to build V3 by considering the client’s business needs and company business goals.