Food UI

I just got back from a lovely trip to New York City.  I love that town!  I briefly lived there many years ago and have visited on multiple occasions throughout my entire life.  It’s always a fun time, particularly since my friend network there constantly grows.  Armed with a wallet and a metrocard, there are unlimited opportunities for things to do, see, and eat.

This time around, I visited the illustrious Magnolia Bakery, as made famous by SNL’s “Lazy Sunday” digital short.  It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, so naturally there was an enormous line wrapped around the block.  Seeing as I had nothing better to do than bask in the afternoon waiting for cupcakes, my friend and I queued up.

As we got closer to the door, we peered in the window to assess the setup.  The bakery does sell other baked goods, but the main attraction (particularly for a touristy newbie) is the cupcakes.  There is a front window nook of the store where they lay out 4 trays of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes.  The system is quite simple: take a box, use a piece of wax paper, pick your cupcakes to your heart’s delight, then get in line to pay.

Let me rephrase: the system is deceptively simple.

I grabbed my box, took a piece of wax paper, beamed with glittery eyes over the selection, then decided to go for a chocolate cupcake first.

Let me describe the tray setup a little more.  There is space in this window nook for 4 trays of cupcakes in a 2×2 configuration.  Each tray holds about 15 cupcakes each.  Each of the trays comes with a clear plastic cover placed on top.  These covers are about 5-6 inches tall and are hinged lengthwise across the center of the cover.  That means you can swing open the front of the cover and rest it on top of the back half providing a little half shelter.

Back to me reaching for my chocolate cupcake.  When you’re presented with a delightful display of baked goods, you scan the selection to find the perfect specimen oblivious of environmental factors.  I reached for my perfect cupcake only to be thwarted by this plastic cover.  You tend to pick up cupcakes by the bottom half, with your hand angled as if going for a handshake.  But the combination of this hand angle, maneuvering into a plastic shelter (yes the perfect chocolate cupcake was located in the back half of the tray), and wielding wax paper proved a recipe for frosting mayhem.  The wax paper was such an imprecise means for contamination prevention.  Like a drunken frat boy, it staggered rudely into neighboring cupcakes then latched onto the selected cupcake in a bear hug only to walk away smeared with frosting and sprinkling carnage.

I considered changing my hand angle and coming in from the top like one of those crane grabber games, but that wouldn’t have worked for the cupcakes in the shelter.  Worse, my frat boy would have gotten dangerous license to come in for a sloppy smooch, thus marring the perfect, sprinkled frosting top of the innocent cupcake.

In the end I just plowed forward, grabbed more wax paper when the one in my hand was too disgraced, and offered sheepish apologetic glances to the folks surely staring at my nonexistent adroitness and severe lack of respect for the cupcakes left in the wake.

This setup has an all too simple solution.  TONGS.  Why not just get rid of these insidious boxes of wax paper and replace them with tongs?  The tongs would simply act as a sterile extension of your own dexterity.  You could maneuver in, around, and over the cupcakes with grace and ease.  It would probably also help the line move faster.  Nevertheless, the story ended happily enough with a box full of cupcakes and a story for my blog.

Photo from here