Technology should be serving humans as a way to experience more real life and less screens. This morning, I was driving my weekly 2 hour commute and listening to Episode 102 of The Web Ahead podcast with Jen Simmons: Understanding Apple Watch with Josh Clark. One of the take aways I had that was less deep than some other thoughts I need to sort out before I write about was sketchable.
First, let me say that I only recently bought a fitbit as my first wearable experience. So far, I feel like it's a pretty invisible experience and I love the dashboard option although I feel like it's missing a lot of potentially helpful data correlation. I also wish it were waterproof because I find myself having to take it off a lot and then I forget it, but that's another story. I like how it only notifies me daily when I am within a threshold (which I've set manually) of my daily goal. But it has so much more potential to helping me optimize. I really like that it has barely a screen and it's meant to just wear and capture data. The data comes to me as long as I charge it and wear it.
This spurred an idea I had for an experience of when you walk into a restaurant. Rather than having to touch a kiosk screen for menu options to order like so many restaurants are throwing in our faces just to look "innovative", I thought it might be nice if it went something like this as a smart watch scenario:
- Enter restaurant
- Notification with confirmation screen on your location
- If confirmed, your watch/wearable:
- Asks if you want what you ordered last time (and rated as 4 stars).
- Brings up menu options based on your favorite foods and/or filter restaurant specials.
- Order with a touch/pay immediately. Similar experience when you leave to tip. Use your voice to leave them an optional message.
All of this without pulling out your phone or needing to fully engaged in a menu kiosk. Opt in to dessert notifications or other selling opportunities from the table. The restaurant gets a very tailored, qualified audience for those opportunities, and no one gets that in their personal space who doesn't want it. Offer loyalty rewards in a nice experience and make it an overall invisible feel.
Of course, just like many services and technology out there it would depend solely on restaurant implementation and/or participation but it's just an idea to get us thinking about context and leveraging data. There are obviously many other scenarios such as adding another person's order to a check that could be addressed in detail, but overall this type of thinking and scenario could allow more time to chat - the real reason we went out to eat in the first place.