I can do it too!<p>Everything I Needed to Know About Writing Software I Learned While Working in Restaurants (Kitchens)<p>Sanitize all inputs.<p>If you have a single point of failure, it will only be a problem when it matters most.<p>Your recipes will need to be constantly tweaked in alignment with the stars.<p>Users will always do things you don't expect, and will be upset when your system doesn't behave as they'd expect.<p>Expect many complaints about the lack of <i>insert unadvertised feature here</i>.<p>Team communication often trumps raw skill.<p>Snark aside, I do think that many people would be better off doing a tour of "civil service" in retail or food service before going off to fancy jobs. I really did learn a lot both as a line cook and in retail.
I've worked as a server and I thought this was going to focus on POS systems and how horribly they are (often) implemented. Talk about a design nightmare, with at least 5 clicks to put in one person's order (x2-4 for a typical table). And items were almost always in a random configuration with little reasoning for placement of, for instance, extra mayonnaise versus no lettuce. I'm not sure if the new mobile POS systems are any better, but I will never forget how bad restaurant POSs are when designing UIs.
> Photos of food and other products help create desire, answer common questions, and set expectations for a high-quality experience<p>Uhhh, no. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but here in England no restaurants have pictures. It's cheap and tacky, and it's a huge red flag when you encounter a rare one that feels the need to show you photographs of bowls of pasta/steaks. I defy you to show me any European restaurant that treats it's customers like children by showing them brightly coloured pictures of their food on the menu.<p>The only exception I can think of is the desert menus for Indian restaurants, but that's mainly because they don't really 'do' desert and just buy the ice cream and menus from some distributor as a package.
> don’t slow down those who are in a hurry<p>I used to be able to go through the drive through of a local taco place and order "2 Super Mightys, mild with sour cream", "Anything else?" "Nope", done. They've added a bunch of options to it and now I have to have a conversation: 2 Super Mightys... white or wheat? white... hot, medium or mild? mild... Would you like sour cream, guacamole or salsa on that? sour cream... Any chips? No... Would you like anything to drink today? No... Anything else? No... They always ask in the same order and I've tried giving all the selections at once in hopes they realize I know what I want and just let it be done, but they always ask the follow up questions anyway or they get tripped up and I have to repeat everything. Now, if I'm moody, I just go over to McDonalds and get the #1.
<i>> Pictures sell</i><p>Uhhh, what? I'm struggling to think of a favorite or popular restaurant that has pictures on the menu or in the restaurant. That's a move generally relegated to cheap chinese or mexican restaurants. You'll find pictures on yelp and sometimes on the restaurants website. But, in general, no–pictures aren't what sells.
As someone who's worked in a Starbucks, they definitely get the points about not forcing jargon and remembering repeat customers; both were mentioned directly in training.<p>I like to spin jargon as a teaching opportunity: "Did you know that we call the large cup a 'venti' because venti is italian for 20, and the cup holds 20 ounces of coffee?" Now the customer feels like they've learned something about how we make coffee, will use our fancy jargon, and might even tell all their friends that we taught them a snippet of Italian.
Everything I needed to know about software development I learned while working maintenance in a power plant:<p>1.) If you have to call in outside contractors, expect it to cost too much, and be done incorrectly, so you'll have to go over it again yourself.<p>2.) Investing in good tools saves a lot of time and money in the long run.<p>3.) If you let the cruft build up without cleaning it out once in a while, it can bring everything to a screeching halt eventually.<p>4.) Talking about doing things doesn't get things done. Somebody has to go out and get their hands dirty actually doing it.<p>5.) It's easier to schedule your work when there is a regular, defined schedule of interruptions (9AM coffee break, 12PM lunch, 3PM coffee break) versus random ad-hoc interruptions.<p>6.) Some operations really need locks to safeguard users and data - i.e. make sure you've locked out the circuit on the wood chipper before you climb in to replace the knives...<p>7.) Respect the old geezer who has been around forever and had their hands into every component of the system. They know not just how the system works, but why things are the way they are now, when that differs from the original spec. Ignore their wisdom at your own peril.<p>8.) Most people don't take a lot of pride in their work, and will try to do just enough to get by. If your life depends on something, make sure you trust the person doing it isn't in "good enuff" mode. Then check it again anyway.<p>9.) Paid overtime is a great incentive to management to have people get shit done during normal hours. Calling workers in off-hours should be expensive and rare.
> Translate menus and descriptions as needed, by using the customers’ vocabulary instead of brand names, foreign words, and insider jargon.<p>I think this is great advice not just for UX, but also for when communicating technical topics across disciplines or to nonprofessionals. Of course, this is easier said than done -- many concepts are often not directly translatable, so it takes work to come up with near optimal approximations.