Was it the user or the design? | A tragic story between Zapper, a user & a waiter.

Halfway to the restaurant, my partner and I realized we had both forgot our wallets. Panic loomed in the car, cause at that point, we were too invested in the trip and too hungry to turn back. Bursting through the establishment’s doors, the first question we asked them was, “Do you perhaps use Snapscan or Zapper, we happen to have forgotten our wallets?” A response came back, “My lady and sir, we use Zapper. Please sit down we’ve got you covered.” The technology god was on our side, so we proceeded to request a menu.

A lovely gentleman walked over to our table, “My name is Thabo (not his actual name) and I will be your waiter,” he said — Oh boy, what a waiter this man was. He was on the ball, ensured we had everything we needed, always within our radar but not being overly helpful — just the right amount of presence and absence. Came the time to pay. After that amazing food and service, we were ready to tip this man exceptionally well — so my partner opened the app, scanned the QR code, and then…Oops 😖

What happened next, had the three of us bugged-eyed. The minute we realized what just happened, it was too late. She paid the bill. Good, right? That is the intended behavior in the pay screen, for the user to pay as easily and quickly as possible — but then what about Thabo’s tip? My partner saw the big green button with the total and pressed it, settling the bill (technically ending the transaction). What makes matters worse, the restaurant had defaulted their tip percentage to 0% (basically disabled tips), meaning that the 12.5% tip that would have automatically been added to the overall total, was not included on our bill 😥

Now, this introduced another kind of panic for us, how are we going to tip this man? “Thabo! Can we pay it as a separate transaction?” “No guys, unfortunately not, that won’t be possible,” he said. We had done Thabo dirty, at this point, both myself and my partner were on our feels.

On our drive back, I found myself reflecting on that experience. I wondered if that was possibly a design-caused “issue” or a user error. Could it possibly be how big the pay button was, with big white fonts that caught her attention? Or did she miss the tipping feature because of how small it is on the screen? Could it perhaps be the color of the button, having it showing as enabled (primary color) attracted her attention to it? Does the screen layout convey Zapper’s priority in terms of what they think is most important? Or because my partner is used to the app automatically adding 12.5% on the total, she didn’t spare a minute to check if this was the case for our bill? I just don’t know 🤷‍♀️

What I do know is, we wish we could have been able to settle the bill and also tip Thabo well. We wish the app could have given us a prompt message, nudging us to reconsider leaving a tip. In fact, we wish the restaurant had not disabled the default 12.5% to begin with, cause then at least Thabo would have received something. In a country that has such a high unemployment rate, if we are able to afford to eat out and benefit from the convenience tools such as Zapper provide — the least we can do is pay it forward by giving someone else that extra to keep them going.

One thing is for sure though, next time we are paying with Zapper, we’ll make sure to triple-check the screen before pressing that pay button. As creators, we need a lot of ubuntu in the way we design and implement the products that many of us use, especially for the people who depend on them for a living. Whether this was a design, user, or the restaurant’s fault for removing tips — the person who really lost out, in the end, was Thabo.

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.