Anil's Dombivli Stall Line

Anil charges fish sellers a few rupees per customer to run their line as numbered turns on a phone, so nobody has to shout.

Who this is for

Anil Kadam runs a two-chair dental clinic off Manpada Road in Dombivli, with one girl at the desk and about eighteen patients on a Saturday. He built the numbered line for his own waiting room first. The moment that matters is a Tuesday at seven in the morning, standing in the fish market near the station with Suresh, who sells pomfret from a stall three feet wide and cannot hear his own nephew calling names.

How the job is done today

At the clinic, the girl at the desk writes names down the side of a long notebook and ticks them off, and when the drill is running she has to walk to the door and say the name twice. In the market it is worse. Suresh sells pomfret at four hundred rupees a kilo and keeps the order of his customers in his head. When two women both say they came first, he guesses. His nephew stands on a crate and shouts names over the ice seller and the seven-fifteen train. People who miss their name drift off to the vegetable aisle and come back angry, and Suresh loses the sale.

The screens, in order

1. My stalls — Anil sees every shop and clinic using his line, so he knows who is running today and who has stopped.
2. The line — The seller adds the next customer with one tap and marks the current one done, without looking away from the fish.
3. Your number — The customer holds their own phone and watches their number sit there in large digits until it is their turn.
4. Stall board — An old phone tied to the pole shows the number being served in digits big enough to read from across the aisle.
5. What is owed — Shows how many customers each stall put through, so Anil knows what to collect on Saturday.

What it keeps track of

• Stalls — shop name, owner name, phone number, what he pays per customer, running or closed
• Turns — which stall, what number, when it was given, waiting or being served or done or walked off
• Collections — which stall, which week, how many customers, how many rupees, paid or not

The one decision that matters

The whole thing turns on how a customer learns it is their turn. One way is the ordinary route: a ring, a beep, a message. In that market a ring is nothing. The ice machine, the trains and forty sellers calling rates will bury it, and the customer is standing three feet from the stall anyway. The other way is to make the number visible and never rely on hearing. Go the visible way. The customer's own screen holds their number in digits an arm's length readable, it buzzes long and hard when two people are ahead, and the stall's old phone shows the number now being served in the largest digits the screen allows. Nothing in the app should depend on sound working.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out collecting Anil's money through the app, and leave out any message going to a customer who has walked away. Sellers here settle in cash and Anil is in the market twice a week anyway, so a count of customers served is enough to hand over notes against. Chasing a customer who has left the market with a message is a problem for later, when he knows how often it actually happens.

How you would know it worked

One full morning at Suresh's stall where nobody shouts a name even once, and the nephew spends that morning gutting fish instead of standing on the crate.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I want an app I can put on my own phone and on the phones of the fish sellers near Dombivli station. The seller taps once to add the next customer, and that customer gets a number on their own phone in digits big enough to read at arm's length, with a long buzz when two people are ahead of them. An old phone tied to the stall pole should show the number being served in very large numbers so anyone can see it from across the aisle. Nobody can hear a ring in that market, so nothing should depend on sound. Keep a count of how many customers each stall served so I can collect my few rupees per customer on Saturday, and let me see all my stalls in one list with who is running today.