Observe and Interview:
While looking for new shoes, I noticed the store vendors and employees had a lot of trouble finding stock and maneuvering small stores. I wondered if I could make a mobile app that would assist in their work.
I interviewed two vendors: Alan Kakinami (professional racket stringer and yonex gear vendor) and Mike -last name ommitted- (Berkeley sports employee).
Being vendors, both rarely did activities that required them to be away from their phone for extended periods of time. However, neither had immediately internet access without WiFi.
Both were troubled by the difficulty of managing their inventory so this is the direction I decided to focus on when creating my prototype.
Brainstorming:
1. A mobile app that keeps track of inventory and sends your watch a notification when you’re low
2. A way to handle transactions through the smart watch. (similar to Venmo for the watch)
3. A full miniature store inside of the watch with both of the above features
4. MP3 player for music while working
5. Motion detector to keep track of stringing patterns and insure no mistakes were made
6. Build in queue for when there’s a long line of customers who want their racquet strung (maybe a camera that takes a picture and displays them one after another in the form of a line)
7. A tab to keep track of who owes what (frequent customers tend to have credit)
8. Accessory for credit card scanning to make transactions anywhere
9. Scanner (barcode scanner? Double as camera?) to get item pricing and info
10. Customer profiles for people who make multiple orders ( a way to organize client orders)
11. Event calendar for where to be (vending at special events)
12. Built in localized GPS to tell customers where he is in the store/building
My favorite idea is a combination of several of the ones above. Mainly, I feel the most important feature would be the ability to make transactions anywhere. For a mobile vendor, this makes things a lot more convenient. Transactions could occur either through a third party (like Paypal or Venmo) or through a direct credit card scanner. The transaction could also be processed right away and update an existing virtual inventory taken of the items in stash.
Prototype:
Below is my design and prototype
Field-testing and Feedback:
Volunteer:
Vivian Dien
Premise:
Had to at least explain the top was a credit card scanner and the right stub was a barcode scanner
Test Feedback:
User generally thought the mobility aspect (credit card scanner and barcode scanner) was good.
Liked that she could sell items without a register.
User was concerned about screen size.
User was left handed (wore her watch usually on her right hand) so the barcode scanner was facing the wrong direction.
User had questions about paying with cash or wanting a receipt.
User wanted voice command.
Additional Notes:
Any smaller would make the screen hard to read. The extra stub for the credit card scanner had to at least be that size to scan the magnetic strip on most cards.
Perhaps make the credit card scanner a detachable accessory?
Make screen rotatable? Then flipping the watch would put the credit card scanner on the bottom (probably not that big of an issue).
While handling cash would be more difficult, maybe the watch could be synced to a machine to print receipts.
Voice command to be possible feature in next iteration.
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