Configurator Usability Challenge: Ordering online from Outback Steakhouse
This is the second post in an ongoing series of product configurator reviews in which I review the online configuration process on websites.
Recently I placed my first online order with Outback Steakhouse for curbside pickup. I appreciated the ability to order online but found some usability concerns that I’d like to outline in this post. Prior to this online order, I was neither aware of online ordering or curbside pickup at Outback. This is mostly due to the fact that we do not frequently dine there (2-3 times per year on average).
The purpose of this post is to articulate how user experience in a physical store environment (in this case, the Outback restaurant) is not always reflected online. Companies large and small need to factor the physical experience requirements with the virtual experience requirements. If an Outback restaurant was presented like their online ordering experience is presented, there would be few repeat purchasers.
On with the screen shot reviews:
Step 1: Main Menu
My initial reactions:
- No search. This is an area that I haven’t seen many online restaurants embrace, yet. If I know what I want, I should be able to search for it. However, I can somewhat understand why it’s not offered because restaurants generally try to emulate their physical menus — which obviously do not offer searching capabilities.
- One long, scrollable menu. The left-hand navigation is a series of anchor points. This was an interesting concept that didn’t bother me, but came across as non-standard. This layout would be more of a problem if there were a lot of pictures.
- Lack of pictures. The only menu item with a picture is the Aussie-Tizers at the very top. This is an online merchandising faux pax. Hard to up-sell someone, especially with food, if you can’t see what it looks like — this is why restaurants typically have the “dessert cart” to show off / upsell their desserts when you think you can’t fit anything else in your stomach.
Step 2: “Configuring” Baby Back Ribs?
- Clicking a red link in the left column forces the right column of the browser window to refresh.
- OK, I see Baby Back Ribs on the right-hand side of my screen.
- I have to click on links in the right-hand side to further configure this order (i.e. “click to substitute”).
- Usability concern: Clicking on links generally takes me away to another page (I want to order Baby Back Ribs — will I need to re-add them to my cart after leaving this page because I’m not clicking “Add to Order” yet?). Very non-standard.
Step 3: “Configuring” the sides
- I “click to substitute” Aussie Fries for a Signature Side Salad (if you’ve ever ordered fries with a curbside pickup order from any restaurant, you know that the fries are soggy by the time they make it back to your house).
- I don’t understand what “Special Instructions” are for. In my first pass through their site (before taking screenshots), I entered my salad dressing type here. The last thing I wanted was a salad without salad dressing.
Step 4: Choose side salad type
- Right-hand part of the page has refreshed again, now asking me for a salad type. Again, not that I personally need them, but showing pictures here would really help upsell to other types of sides/salads. Instead I go for the old faithful “House Salad.”
Step 5: Choose salad dressing
- Page refreshes again and asks me for the salad dressing type. For some reason, this is a drop-down menu instead of radio buttons like the previous page. Subtle interface issues like this make for additional usability concerns when switching question/answer display types.
Step 6: (Upsell time) Salad or Soup?
- I just completed 3 separate clicks to override Aussie Fries for a Salad, chose my salad type, then chose my salad dressing. Now I’m being asked if I want a side salad? This configurator is not intelligent enough to detect if you’ve already ordered what it’s asking you for.
- “Click add to order to proceed” is counter-intuitive. If I don’t want anything, then I shouldn’t be taking the action to “add to order” my “No soup or salad” option. A simple “no thanks, skip this option” would be more appropriate wording.
Step 7: Additional add-ons?
- I just got finished making it through 6 separate pages and I still have not added Baby Back Ribs to my order.
- Again, trying to up-sell without supporting photos of these “Add-on Mates”
- Like in step #6, counter-intuitive use of “click Add to Order to proceed”
- And the mysterious “special instructions” field still exists — I’m not sure what instructions I would add here? It would help if they provided examples of what information they would look for here.
Step 8: Completed Baby Back Ribs “configuration”
- 8 pages later and many more clicks than that, I have added Baby Back Ribs to my order. That’s quite a few clicks and now I’m really hungry.
- Other concerns about this page include:
- Tax is only estimated and may vary by store location. There is technology available to accurately calculate tax for each individual store.
- “No Add-On Mates, Thank you (click Add to Order to proceed” is an actual “option” on this order. This is not user-friendly.
- Would like to see the ability to duplicate an item in the order
Overall User Experience Analysis
The non-standard navigation (split left & right columns), numerous clicks for ordering Baby Back Ribs, no indicator as to how many steps are in the process to configure an item on the order, and the overall lack of standard online shopping functions (photos, sorting by price/name, searching, etc.) put this site near the bottom of the “easy of use” list for me, personally.
Had this been a local mom & pop restaurant, I would have called in my order because I would not have trusted the website enough. Because Outback is a well-known brand name, I was able to look past these usability flaws and place my order online. I would speculate that by making usability improvements to eliminate these barriers, they would see more curbside orders being placed online and their call-in orders would decrease.
Product configurators should imitate real life guided selling
In the real world, if a waiter would have walked through the same set of questions I had answered on the website, it would have aggravated me: When I substituted the side salad for Aussie Fries, I should not have been asked again if I would’ve liked a side salad for an additional $2.50. This is where product configurators online need to reflect real-life scenarios and not function like a computer running through a list of questions.
Fortunately, most people “get” the restaurant ordering experience and can look past these usability flaws. However, for manufacturers and retailers selling products which consumers do not purchase often, product configurators must be highly intuitive, helpful, and be positioned to up-sell but most importantly to answer questions about the basic options being presented to consumers.
