May I take your order? Human factors field studies in the fast food environment

While applied human factors research is frequently conducted in technology-rich advanced environments (e.g., aircraft, nuclear power plants, and marine vessels), this paper describes a successful applied human factors field study in a complex, dynamic, and highly demanding commercial environment-your local fast food restaurant. The primary study objective was to gain a comprehensive understanding of fast food store operations and employee activities in an effort to conceptualize and to develop design guidelines for next-generation technology in this industry. The findings suggested that the current implementation of technology in the fast food industry does not always meet the needs of today's users. Several opportunities exist for human factors professionals to re-engineer store processes and operations and to design more appropriate technology solutions.