Enjoy, you’ve got the

Best Seat in the House

Reservation Available

Finally!

You found a reservation available at the hottest restaurant everyone keeps raving about. You confirm your booking, and you get ready and arrive on time- expectations are high and have this feeling of excitement (and hunger) for your special evening. 

The hostess greets you and says your table is ready! As you follow the hostess through the dining room, delicious smells hit you and soft laughter echoes throughout. You're coming up to a booth and it's such a beautiful table for your date night- but the hostess continues to walk and turns to your table… right next to the kitchen entrance. You ask, “are we able to get that booth over there?” And she replies with, “Unfortunately, that tables been reserved already by using Best Seat in the House”

Using what?


Look no further than the Best Seat in the House app – your ultimate companion for securing the perfect table. With our state-of-the-art floor plan visualization and detailed information, you can now make informed decisions and select the ideal location for your dining pleasure. Why sit at any table when you can reserve the Best Seat in the house?

Description

Year

1 month to create an App, start to finish

Timeline

2023

Research & Analysis, branding, interactive design, visual design, prototyping, and usability testing

Roles

Industry

Hospitality

Best Seat

Enhancing Dining Experiences with Best Seat in the House

As someone with a strong background in hospitality, I understand the importance of creating unforgettable experiences for guests. That's why I created Best Seat in the House, an innovative app that revolutionizes the dining reservation process by allowing guests to choose their preferred seating arrangements. This includes:

  • Seamless Reservation Process

  • Customizing Dining Experiences

  • Catering to Special Occasions

  • Streamlining Restaurant Operations

  • Maintaining Flexibility

When it comes to dining, showing up to your reservation and being sat at an undesirable table can deflate the entire experience. Best Seat in the House brings the power of choice to users, allowing them to shape their dining experience according to their preferences.

By requiring users to make a deposit to reserve their desired table, users are committed to their reservation, which promises business for the restaurant and avoids“no-shows.” By leveraging my experiences in fine dining, I am committed to making Best Seat in the House the go-to app for discerning diners looking to create unforgettable moments at their favorite restaurants.

Conducting Research

  • Interview Participants (5)

  • Competitive Analysis

  • Survey Question

Research Methods

The methods for research were Interviews, Competitive Analysis and a Survey Question. I wanted to unravel what users need that other platforms are lacking. All 5 participants in the interviews use competitors Open table and Resy (which was also my competitive analysis), and I gained a great amount of feedback. Important questions were asked such as:

  • If you had the option, would you like to select your table when making a reservation?

  • Do you think table placement is important?

  • Would you be willing to pay a deposit to reserve a table?

  • Do you enjoy programs with incentives and kick backs?

  • What are your biggest frustrations and pain points when making a reservation and getting sat at a table you dont like?

Competitive Analysis

I had to look into what my competitors where doing successful- so I could do better. Off the top of my head my known competitors in the industry were Opentable and Resy.

Top Competitors

  • Availability Alerts

  • Saved restaurants

  • Notification center

  • Direct messaging

  • Experiences

  • Bonus points/
    loyalty program

  • Can choose desired area
    seating

  • Custom Reservation Inventory

  • Choose where they dine (patio, chefs counter, custom tables, shared)

  • Resy Pay

  • Backed by American Express

  • Restaurant discovery

  • Exclusive access

  • Chef-driven culinary events.

Survey Question

“Would you like to be able to select your table for a dinner reservation like you select a seat for a movie or an airline flight?”

Research Debrief and Discoveries

I discovered that its surprising to people that this app hasn’t been created yet! Majority of participants have had similar experiences which helped pin point the biggest pain points. The survey question resulted in 32 Yes, and 3 No. The affinity map laid out common themes as well:

  • 3 of 5 participants stress about getting desired reservation time

  • 5 of 5 participants would love to be able to choose their table when reserving

  • 5 of 5 participants would be willing to pay a deposit, but within limitations

  • 5 of 5 enjoy programs with incentives and quick kick backs

  • 5 of 5 participants have been sat in an undesirable table, mainly near kitchen or bathroom

Affinity Map

Pain Points

  • Being sat at table next to the kitchen, bathroom or server station

  • Not knowing what table they will have when making reservation

  • Making last minute reservations and not being able to get a table

  • Not having their desired time slot

What do users need to elevate their reservation process, as well as making Best Seat in the House the first choice over our competitors?

The biggest pain for users making reservations is not knowing where or what kind of table they will be sat at upon arrival. Having the opportunity to see the space and selecting based on table information would make all the difference.

Now let’s think: What Point of View should I empathize with and How Might We help them?

  • How Might We design a Floor Plan Visualization?

  • How Might We provide detailed information about tables?

  • How Might We create a loyalty program with incentives and kickbacks?

Personas

This is Anthony, an older business professional. He frequently dines with clients and likes to know what to expect without any inconveniences. He benefits from Best Seat in the House’s features.

Through observing restaurant visitors, I noticed the struggle of frequent diners. A common theme was sitting in undesirable locations, for privacy, noise, and traffic.

This is Veronica, a diner who makes sure their phone eats first by documenting and uploading to social media.

We discovered that she loves to rack up points, sit in the most ideal seat in the restaurant and always leaves reviews, good or bad. I think we can help her.

When I began sketching, I kept in mind the usability for all aged users. The navigation bar with recognizable icons as well as a jewel tier system for the VIP points. The floor map of the restaurant needed to be simple and understandable for Anthony to select his table.

For Veronica, there are optional additions to make the dining experience even more ‘tik-tok’ worthy. She is able to select anything from preselected Prosecco upon arrival to customized messages with flowers.

Following these Lo-Fi sketches, the Mid-Fi wireframes below shows the home page and selected restaurant. I wanted there to be plenty of necessary information without looking crowded.

Once the time is selected, the user gets to choose their table with a legend showing whats available and the highlighted best seat to continue. Keep in mind some colors were adjusted in the final product due to accessibility and colors clashing.

Sketches & Wireframes

The main priority of Best Seat in the House is the ability to select your seat, redeem points and make the users reservation flawlessly. This site map shows clear focus and purpose of the home page and its navigation pages. User flows were drawn out to navigate with ease and assuring Anthony and Veronica make their reservations with no hiccups. Farther down the page we review the usability and success metrics of these tasks.

Site Maps and User Flows

Experience the revolution in table selection – upgrade your reservation game with the Best Seat in the House app today

Creating a brand thats usable, desirable and satisfying for everyone’s appetite.

Best Seat’s brand is clean, minimal, dark and exciting with gradient accents of purple and teal blue and a glassmorphism aesthetic. The target demographics need an interface that’s accessible, sharp, professional with seamless customer satisfaction.

The points program is designed to build loyalty. Ours shows the users status and how much more Veronica would need to the next redeemable kickback. Anthony also see’s this as a way of saving money, making this app his first choice when booking a reservation.

Once a restaurant joins Best Seat in the House, they get a complimentary rendering of the restaurant to be used on our platform for consistency and familiarity throughout.

Selecting the Best Seat in the House

After selecting the Best Seat App and a smart animation, the user is welcomed to the home screen. It shows the users profile at the top right, because we know someone like Veronica will frequently check how many points she’s accumulated. Scrolling down shows open seats available now, places you’ve dined before, and a bottom navigation. Pizza always sounds good, so Veronica’s chosen Pizzaria Portofino, for 4 friends at 3:00 PM. With us, you get to choose whichever seat your heart desires. The bottom left table in the corner looks interesting, and once selected, it goes into detail about that table, leaving no surprises in case Anthony is bringing in a very important client.

An “About this table” smoothly glides down and shows the tables location, what its best known for, any special views and the price per person to reserve. After they continue, the next page gives the even more choices to make their dining experience personalized. For Veronica, it could be a birthday dinner, or cute date night. For Anthony, selecting the business tag will let the restaurant know the tone for the evening. Once, the user has read through and selected “Yes, I understand” and press the “$8.00 Reserve” button, they can conveniently use Apple Pay. As simple as that, their reservation is confirmed!

The benefit of using Best Seat in the House isn’t only the revolutionary booking, but also the VIP points that add up after each completed dining experience. Once Veronica has stacked up enough VIP Points, she can go to her profile and see her point status, what’s redeemable and what to work hard for. The user has redeemed the “Deposit Waived” and when making their next reservation, the perk of not having to pay for the reservation has been successfully applied. I bet that tastes delicious. With that customer satisfaction, they will be coming back to this app to book, stack, redeem, repeat!

Usability Testing & Success Metrics

Tasks:

  • Making a reservation & selecting Best Seat in the House

  • Book your table with redeemed points

To make sure everything flows accurately, I had to “taste test." I asked 3 participants to follow specific suggestions to see if the two tasks made sense. Two participants dine out frequently and use reservation booking apps, and the third usually just calls up the restaurant. The feedback received was 10/10 by all three participants.

  • Task 1: Making a reservation & selecting Best Seat in the House - 3 of 3 participants made reservation with ease, enjoyed how inviting it was and loved seeing table info and floor plan.

  • Task 2: Book your table with redeemed points - 3 of 3 participants thoroughly enjoyed the loyalty points. One mentioned it was like a game that they wanted to use. They all were able to find user profile easily.

  • Final Comments: Users mentioned they wish this app was real. Thoroughly enjoyed the colors, how inviting it was, liked to see table details, and animations.

Reflection

Best Seat in the House has been a joy to design. I felt a passion within me to create something that can make a difference in someones day, as I do within my current career as a server. This project challenged me to think as a user would when booking a reservation. The feeling of excitement, the anxiousness, the that moment you get to the table and its dreadful. I wanted to create something that everyday diners would find useful, useable and desirable.

From a business standpoint, creating loyalty from users will continue to bring in revenue, more perks and an app that will always be first choice within restaurant bookings. As my final Capstone with DesignLab, theres so much growth to appreciate. When I began, I was a blurry and confused small pixel. Now with the knowledge and skills I’ve learned, I’m ready to take on the next step in a career as a UX/UI Designer with an open mind and hunger for creativity.

Next

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