Oh, how the Ninja Turtles would be envious of what’s possible today.
I just ordered Domino’s Pizza with my sister-in-law and thought I was going through a typical transaction over the web. After the credit card payment, however, I was brought to this flash-based interface on the confirmation page:
30 Minute Guaranteeing, Dynamic Interface from Dominos.com
While we waited, there was also a “Are you a Republican/Democrat?” poll to interact with.
Usually, once I’ve purchased a product, I leave the computer or close the screen but I’m still here, waiting eagerly to see how my pizza is progressing. They’ve broken it down into 5 easy steps: order placed, prep, bake, box, delivery. And here’s also a nice touch:
Yes, bake that pie, Corine.
What a nice personal touch, adds a nice human element (kinda makes me want to go to Domino’s right now just to see if there’s really a Corine there). But now, the final touch:
Steve is on his way!
Methinks I hear the doorbell. I’m gonna go say hi to Steve and watch the VP debate. What a delightful pizza ordering experience!
Edit on 10/3/08:
Ordering pizza, or buying some other commercial product online, has now become a mundane process. As Goffman would say it, we have a transactional process of “initiation, maintenance, and leave-taking.” It’s the last phase of “leave-taking” that really interests me. In much of life, we greet people, get to know them a bit, and at the end of the day, say goodbye.
Dewey calls his form “conception, development, and fulfillment.” Many times, people will make a purchase and once they give out their credit card, the confirmation page is a just another moment in their day where they transition to another activity and mode of thinking. However, this Dominos pizza tracker took it beyond just a “leave-taking” stage. I actually stayed in Dominos land (Dominos became my environment because I had intent to stay) and we had a type of conversation. I don’t know what I exactly mean by that, but it was something very different from other transactions I’ve had before.
Comments
You were definitely having some kind of “conversation” between Domino’s the entity acting as a being. In other words, this mess of a process of making and delivering your pizza gave you information along the way, gave you a kind of presence in the process, which also gives you some form of ownership in the process. (I realize there’s a lot of modifiers in that statement.)
I guess the question is: What is a conversation? On its most simple mundane level, it’s closer to Goffman. On a richer, more emotional level, it’s closer to Dewey. It’s been awhile since I read Dewey, but when I think of “fulfillment”, I think of something entirely different than “leave-taking”. Leave-taking is a set of rote actions, more like signals to leave. One need not be emotionally engaged to “take leave”. “Fulfillment”, on the other hand, acknowledges the human, the emotion, in the process, that the environment indeed does push back and that being “done” and “taking leave” is not the same as feeling “fulfilled”. Fulfillment connotes emotional expectation being met on some level. So, the Domino’s site was a surrogate for a person, for presence, for the emotion and excitement and enjoyment you feel in ordering your food. It’s a recognition of the humanity, the emotion, not just a rote set of exercises. It actually gives you something back, which is a conversation. Of sorts.
(The previous has been pulled out of a hat and upon being asked to repeat the statement, I’m not sure I’d be able to. Replicability, I am not responsible for.)