These touch-screen Coke foutains.

[Trekker4747]

These touch-screen Coke fountains.

These have been popping up in restaurants and such where you dispense your own drinks for a while now around here. If you've not seen them just imagine a giant iPod that serves Coke products.

You go up to it put your cup inside it and dispense the ice through the push-switch as you would with most other soda dispensers. Then things can get... "complicated"

You press the type of drink you want on the screen (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprtie, etc) and then a second menu comes up with the option for what flavor of that drink you want (Vanilla, Cherry, whatever) these machines claim to have over 100 different drink possibilities from it.

All fine and good but I've encountered two problems with them.

1. Older people are confused by them. Operating them shows to be difficult to those who've not much experience with a computer, iPod or other graphically interactive device.

2. The drinks out of them taste weird. I normally just get a plain Coke out of these things and have yet to once get a "real Coke" taste. I don't know if they're out of whack on how much syrup-to-water they're getting on if (more likely) there's enough trace amounts of previous uses of the machine in the lines to contaminate my drink.

I'm thinking they should have Beta-tested these things more.


Anyone else encounter them or have similar experiences?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I encountered one for the first time on Saturday. I appreciated the larger selection offered and had no difficulty using it. The drink tasted just fine.

 

[{ Emilia }]

They should make them more complicated to use. I bet Bloomberg will suggest putting them everywhere.

 

[Snaploud]

I've used these machines at the local Fuddruckers. I usually just get Powerade Fruit Punch with ice, and it tastes fine to me.

 

[Thestral]

They have one of those things at the local Firehouse Subs. I love it whenever I get lunch there, because I can get Lime Coke. I loved that stuff, and then it disappeared. Like RobMax, I've never had any issue with it's use or taste.

They should make them more complicated to use. I bet Bloomberg will suggest putting them everywhere.

I bet Bloomberg hates those machines because some people are probably like "Oooh, I wonder what Orange Coke tastes like??? Or Cherry Sprite???"

 

[Trekker4747]

I've used these machines at the local Fuddruckers. I usually just get Powerade Fruit Punch with ice, and it tastes fine to me.

Ahhh, Fuddruckers. Man, I miss them.
\

They have one of those things at the local Firehouse Subs. I love it whenever I get lunch there, because I can get Lime Coke. I loved that stuff, and then it disappeared. Like RobMax, I've never had any issue with it's use or taste.

Firehouse Subs, that's where I just went!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: These touch-screen Coke fountains.

imagine a giant iPod that serves Coke products.

I do, but only in nightmares.

 

[Snaploud]

I've used these machines at the local Fuddruckers. I usually just get Powerade Fruit Punch with ice, and it tastes fine to me.

Ahhh, Fuddruckers. Man, I miss them.

I found out about them about a year ago. I love their food. They have the best burgers in Massachusetts.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Re: These touch-screen Coke fountains.

Yes, I've seen a couple around here and used them. I liked it, the widened selection is awesome, especially since I love fruity flavored drinks, which are hard to find otherwise. I haven't noticed a strange taste, but I've also never ordered the "regular" flavors on one. I mean, who would order regular Sprite when you have the option of Raspberry Sprite?!

1. Older people are confused by them. Operating them shows to be difficult to those who've not much experience with a computer, iPod or other graphically interactive device.

This will sound cruel, but it won't be long before those who aren't used to living in a technologically advanced world of computers and iPods are gone. It doesn't make sense to "dumb" things down for them when they won't be using them much longer...

I didn't find it difficult to use at all. I set my cup down, pressed Sprite, pressed Raspberry, and pressed the giant button that dispenses the liquid. The first time I used one I expected it to be more complicated than it really was.

 

[Trekker4747]

Well, I don't find them difficult to use either but I've seen plenty of people who do struggle with them. Usually older people.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I've used these machines at the local Fuddruckers. I usually just get Powerade Fruit Punch with ice, and it tastes fine to me.

Ahhh, Fuddruckers. Man, I miss them.

I found out about them about a year ago. I love their food. They have the best burgers in Massachusetts.

And in California as well! Yes, dare I say even better than In N Out. Luckily I live near a few Fuddruckers'.

 

[Trekker4747]

What I liked about them was that I can order my burger to a desired doneness and size. Damn that place was good, we used to have one here but it shut down a few years ago out of nowhere. Place had been there forever!

 

[Kestra]

Well, I don't find them difficult to use either but I've seen plenty of people who do struggle with them. Usually older people.

So help them.

Fuddruckers is okay. I never got the fuss.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Well, I don't find them difficult to use either but I've seen plenty of people who do struggle with them. Usually older people.

My great uncle called me in a panic one day because the evil new Blu-ray player he had received for Christmas had swallowed his Johnny Carson DVD. After about five minutes of CIA-level interrogation to finally get a straight answer out of him that didn't involve cursing mankind's obsession with new technology, I found out he had put the DVD in the VCR. Now, he had been using the previous DVD player (which he hated at first too) for years just fine, but once it was upgraded to a Blu-ray suddenly it became some sort of alien artifact and caused him to get flustered and put a DVD into a completely incompatible machine.

Sometimes old people (and even some not so old people) aren't going to adapt to even the simplest changes in technology just because it's new technology and they don't like change. You don't ditch or redesign the machine because a tiny percentage of the users are afraid of or confused by it. You help them with it.

 

[MacLeod]

Re: These touch-screen Coke fountains.

These have been popping up in restaurants and such where you dispense your own drinks for a while now around here. If you've not seen them just imagine a giant iPod that serves Coke products.

You go up to it put your cup inside it and dispense the ice through the push-switch as you would with most other soda dispensers. Then things can get... "complicated"

You press the type of drink you want on the screen (Coke, Diet Coke, Sprtie, etc) and then a second menu comes up with the option for what flavor of that drink you want (Vanilla, Cherry, whatever) these machines claim to have over 100 different drink possibilities from it.

All fine and good but I've encountered two problems with them.

1. Older people are confused by them. Operating them shows to be difficult to those who've not much experience with a computer, iPod or other graphically interactive device.

2. The drinks out of them taste weird. I normally just get a plain Coke out of these things and have yet to once get a "real Coke" taste. I don't know if they're out of whack on how much syrup-to-water they're getting on if (more likely) there's enough trace amounts of previous uses of the machine in the lines to contaminate my drink.

I'm thinking they should have Beta-tested these things more.


Anyone else encounter them or have similar experiences?

They no doubt have had a lot of testing before they went out. I have done testing of software and how that software reacts on new hardware.

Unofrtunatly no matter how much you test, a few bugs will still be there when something is released. After all as much as you try, you wan't catch every single bug. Does something happen if X amount of something is ordered, followed by Y?

 

[Thestral]

I will say I've sometimes tried to punch the "buttons" too quickly and had to wait a second and do it again, but I wouldn't call that a problem with myself or the machine really.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I've watched, and a number of times assisted, older people struggling to interact with different kinds of modern vending and other self-service consumer devices (ATMs, self-service supermarket checkout, soda vending, even parking meters and subway card machines). This is, indeed, maybe the one regrettable aspect to these innovations.

I'm a geezer myself, hopefully a couple of decades from being challenged by such changes - but who knows?

 

[Snaploud]

Well, I don't find them difficult to use either but I've seen plenty of people who do struggle with them. Usually older people.

So help them.

Fuddruckers is okay. I never got the fuss.

The big benefit of Fuddruckers is the freshness and quality of the meat and the bread. It's possible that the meat you normally eat is a lot closer to its source, so you wouldn't see as much of an improvement at Fuddruckers.

 

[RoJoHen]

All the Fuddruckers around me closed nearly a decade ago. They tried to open a new one back up a while back, but it closed again within a year. Damn shame.

As for touchscreen soda machines, I have yet to encounter one in real life.

 

[doubleohfive]

We have a Fuddruckers in Burbank, and I will go in every now and again when I'm nostalgic for potato wedge fries with cheese.

But I still think In-N-Out is the best damn burger in the state.