CoNet

interaction concept of a time-saving
communication system for service staff.

time frame

march - july 2022

team

lena bauer, nina bacher

tools

figma, blender

my role

project management & coordination ...

user & content research, ideation, conception & development, prototyping, testing, modelling, animation, analog & digital construction

"you just have to put your heart and soul into it... it will pass."

insights

stress in gastronomie

it has become negatively established that service staff in the gastronomy sector regularly have to cope with stressful and overwhelming situations. in addition to an overwhelming information load, tasks are multitasked and overtime is regularly worked under physical strain.

physical and mental exhaustion

this leads to physical and mental exhaustion, which not only puts a strain on staff but also has a negative impact on the working atmosphere and is passed on to customers.

we counteract the establishment of this problematic situation with conet.

stress trigger: communication

communication between employees (and guests) is one of the major stress triggers. this is why conet focusses this issue. it is about speeding up and simplifying communication and preventing misunderstandings.

process

1/8 interviews, behavioral mappings, questionnaire:

we conducted 3 expert interview, 1 focus group interview with 2 employees, created behavioural mappings of 2 different gastronomy businesses and a questionnaire with 114 participants.

2/8 process analysis

focusing on the restaurant area, we used a specific restaurant to analyse the staff's existing tools and created a detailed process flow of their subtasks.

3/8 conceptual sketches

ideas that popped up were sketched and collected on the way. Later sketches were created based on the problem areas.

4/8 define

we defined how might wes, context of use, user group and steakholders, a product vision, communication area summary, localisation and correlations of the call options.

5/8 analogue product development

the support tool must be integrated into the work process in a meaningful way and must not be an additional burden. we created a morphological box to provide an overview of useful media options. from this, we formed personas for various product options.

6/8 prototype of the analogue product

we created a storyboard, sketches, lofi analogue prototypes on ergonomics and form.

a particular focus was on the function of the button, its mapping to everyday movements and its digital or analogue form.

7/8 swimlane & 3d modelling

a swimlane helped us to recognise and explore problem areas of the concepts by acting out the processes ourselves.

after creating a technical sketch, the product was 3d printed as a prototype.

8/8 screen- & sounddesign

after a screen flow and vibration types were defined, we designed wireframes, a flow chart and style guides to then iteratively create screen design variants.

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for the service staff, who are often overwhelmed and stressed, "conet" a modular multi-use wristband, which has various call options, generates time-saving communication.

video
booklet

user construct

modular system

analogue interaction

sensory channels

in addition to the visual feedback, there are various vibration tones that provide information about the type of call without having to look at the wristband.

example interactions

1/5 waitron starts shift

2/5 waitron checks reservation list

3/5 customer calls waitron

4/5 waitron gets customer call

5/5 kitchen calls waitron