There's a Willy's Mexicana Grill close to where I live here in Atlanta that was, to my knowledge, the first restaurant to pilot the Coke Freestyle. It's been in that store for several months now but I only recently went in to try it out. Like most folks, I first read about the Freestyle in a BusinessWeek article on the topic. It's a pretty amazing device that tells a fantastic story about innovation:
- 30 patents for Coke all bound up into an aesthetically pleasing design
- Wireless data transmission of usage trends
- Cartridges for easier shipping
- Dean Kamen, who worked on the project, is repurposing the technology for water purification in developing countries
So on the surface, this is nothing short of a huge win for Coke and Kamen. That is, of course until you try to use the Freestyle during rush hour at your local Willy's. Some background and then some observations:
Setting the scene: I went into Willy's for lunch but also to try out the Freestyle. I got my food, checked out, took my tray to my table and then went to get my drink. In front of me was a business man. In front of him was a 7 year old. In a normal situation, this means I'm about 22 seconds or less away from enjoying a frosty Coke. If you don't know much about the machine, it basically lets you order up anything from Coke's menu. And that menu is pretty deep. So now, some observations:
Observation #1 - Novices and Kids are Absurdly Slow
So this 7 year old is looking at *all* of her options. She's going through all the screens. And I do mean all of them. This is taking some time. She goes into the Sprite category then backs out, looks at the Fruitopia catalog (yes they still make that), backs back out, takes a gander at the Coke options, then backs out, then over to the Powerade selections. I think she's probably seen over 40 selections. And contrary to a recent report,
this is not entertaining. This is frustrating. Meanwhile the line is now stacking up and it's been at least a minute. I'm being patient. The guy in front of me . . . he's getting antsy. After a few more exploratory screens, the girl chooses a Fruitopia option. I'm excited because I know she's about to wrap up so I'm getting closer to my Coke. She fills up her glass, sips it - pauses, and then dumps the whole glass out. Now kids are prone to do this with any drink. That's just their way. I did it when I was a kid. I don't blame her. The problem here is that it took this kid a LONG time to go through this experiment. In fast food, playful experimentation like this is not your friend. So she goes back to searching screens. At this point, the line is 5 people long now and it's interfering with the checkout process. The guy in front of me loses it and tells the girl she needs to move it along. And she does.
Observation #2 - Even Pros Are Slow
I'm now about two minutes into my wait but the businessman in front of me steps up and I know I'm close now because we've got an expert stepping up to the plate. He won't be surfing options. He's probably a Coke/Diet Coke guy. Sure enough, he knows what he wants. Diet Coke. But you know watching him go through the screens it seems painfully slow. Again, this is not entertaining - particularly for a UI guy like me. I just keep thinking of how unnecessarily long this process is. I just keep thinking that with the old dispensers, getting a Diet Coke is an 8 second affair. Ice. Diet Coke. Done. Even if you top it off a little. This guy is getting his Diet Coke now, but it's probably taken him twice as long.
Observation #3 - Stage Fright
But he finished and I finally make it up there and all of a sudden I've got stage fright. I know I just want a Coke, but the line is ridiculous now. I go through the interface but it takes me a second or two to figure it out as well. Again, this should be an 8 second transaction and it's taking me at least twice that long. Plus the experience is cruddy because I'm feeling pressured because I know everyone in the long line behind me is ready to get their drinks too. It's not an enjoyable experience at all. I want to explore the options but I just can't. There's not enough time. On top of all that, I now people are watching me order because they are mentally practicing their routines so they can avoid being a bottleneck when they get there. The worst part. After I finished my Coke (maybe 3 minutes later - I love Coke and drink it quickly) I get up to get a refill and the line is still long. So I have to wait in line for about 2 more minutes, when I know from many years of experience it would have been half that long with the old fountains.
Some of my buddies who have been to this Willy's confirmed all three of my observations. To quote my friend Brian, whose response was completely unsolicited (we were just talking about lunch at Willys - not the machine in particular): "Yea, lunch was good, but I gotta tell you - that new drink machine is a total bottleneck at lunch."
Something is broken about this experience. How might it be fixed? A couple of thoughts come to mind:
- Add more dispensers. The problem with this is real estate. This machine is slightly more compact than the old fountains, but you'd probably need to triple up at least. Unfortunately, tripling the footprint would be much worse for restaurateur, both cost-wise and space-wise. For a business with heavy foot traffic, you need a better solution than "more machines".
- Provide fewer choices. You could write up an entire post on this (I may). As Barry Schwartz covers in the Paradox of Choice, people have a real problem making decisions when they are confronted with a lot of choices. Add in an interface that encourages exploration and that becomes much more noticeable. Reducing the choices speeds decision-making and makes consumers feel more satisfied with their decisions. Given that this machine is designed to increase options, I doubt this enhancement will be considered.
- Address your long neck better. So the Freestyle is all about providing access to Coke's long-tail products, but Gerry McGovern tells us we can't focus on the long-tail at the expense of the long neck. This is nowhere more evident than in a time-intensive setting like fast food. So improving the selection and pouring of Coke's long-neck products is probably the route I would go in the near term. In a nutshell, the Freestyle should be speed tested against the old fountain machines. It should be just as easy and fast to order Coke's most popular 5 drinks on the Freestyle as it is on the old machines. These 5 should be extremely easy to order. Maybe these five and the ice button aren't on the touchscreen at all. Don't make pouring a Coke a custom request.
Sure this post sounds ranty, but anyone who knows me knows that there are few things in life that I like more than Coke. I'm just a huge fan. So I'm predisposed to like this innovation. I want it to work. I want it to be a great experience and I think it's close, I'm just not sure it's there yet. Hopefully the beta testing will give Coke some guidance on improving the design of the experience.
I'm curious though. Has your experience been better? How else could it be improved?
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