Salon Collective: Tablet POS
The Client
Petite Salon works on a chair rental model, renting space to independent beauty providers while providing services such as front-desk reception. While the stylists are individual, Petite Salon works to create a seamless, chic environment for the customers.
Petite Salon’s current point of sale system is disjointed and error-prone, requiring separate transactions and card swipes for each service or product. Thus, the Petite Salon owners are working to create a new POS system, Salon Collective. They want Salon Collective to fluidly enable multi-merchant/product purchases with one card swipe, and keep records all in one app. Salon Collective is currently in proof-of-concept.
The Goals
• Understand current needs and problem space of Petite Salon
• Evaluate usability of proof-of-concept and mockup
• Make design recommendations for future of system
The Solution
After conducting a cognitive walkthrough of the current prototype and contextual inquiry at the salon to gain deeper understanding of the problem space, our team discovered a few major opportunity areas: streamlining the checkout process, integrating record-keeping functions within one app, and error reduction. In a high fidelity interactive prototype, I envisioned the future of the checkout flow, loaded with accelerators such as suggestions and auto-population to reduce error and increase speed. I also envisioned a more complete integration of record-keeping features such as ticket history and inventory, enabling users to view and manage records in one place.
Tools and Methods
Cognitive Walkthrough Contextual Inquiry Affinity Diagramming Low Fidelity Prototyping High Fidelity Prototyping Sketch InVision
Initial Evaluation
To assess the Petite Salon and Salon Collective problem space, my team and I conducted cognitive walkthroughs of the app mockup, as well as visiting the Petite Salon location in St. Paul to conduct a contextual inquiry.
While the cognitive walkthrough of the app seemed to reveal only small visibility and feedback issues, the contextual inquiry was eye-opening. The checkout experience was truly disjointed. Sharon, the front desk manager, was constantly switching between computer and tablet, and stylists sometimes rang out their own guests at reception using Square. In such a fast-paced and customer-focused environment, this was detrimental to the seamless experience they wanted to cultivate.
“It’s embarrassing, it’s so many steps. You can feel the customer going, ‘What the heck? Does she know what she’s doing?’”
Petite Salon currently uses software called STX for scheduling, record-keeping, and inventory management. However, there is no integration between STX and their credit card processing system, Clover—and the majority of guests use credit cards.
In an on-site interview, Haley, one of the Salon Owners, also expressed a desire for a tablet-first interface, as well as a salon-wide increase in product sales.
Synthesizing Our Findings
After returning from Petite Salon, our team used affinity diagramming to synthesize our findings. We found some of the biggest pain points were the constant switching between programs and screens, slow processing times that added to the disjointed feeling, and low error tolerance.
The Prototype
I created an interactive prototype for the client using Sketch and Invision, demonstrating the checkout experience for one of the more complex situations the front desk might encounter – a multi-provider, multi-product transaction.
I also incorporated visual elements from Petite Salon’s atmosphere and branding to create a customized experience for the client.
I’d noticed that in the current system and even in the proof-of-concept, there was a lot of manual entry for a process that should be quick. I focused on adding accelerators throughout the process, such as being able to select clients, providers, and products from drop-down suggestion list.
To further streamline the process, I envisioned a system where all information that could possibly be auto-filled would be auto-filled—contact info, prices, tips. All these small, automated actions reduce cognitive load on the user and allow them to focus on a positive interaction with the customer.
To consolidate their inventory management and POS, I created a simple inventory system where users could easily view and manage product. The inventory would be integrated with the rest of Salon Collective, so price updates would be automatically pushed to the checkout process, and product purchases would automatically register in the inventory system.