Goal: To improve the customer experience and thus customer satisfaction at the restaurant.

Assumptions

First, I’ll clarify that I’m assuming this table will be used primarily by patrons at a traditional, non-tech focused restaurant, but also by the staff. I’m also assuming that this design will cater to non-disabled users.

User Journey (traditional restaurant)

• Customer is seated at the table and receives menu
• Customer places order
• Customer receives food
• Waiter periodically checks in with customer
• Customer may order + receive more food
• Customer signals to waiter or host that they want the bill
• Customer receives bill and pays
• Customer leaves

Potential Use Cases

• Browse menu
• Place order
• Indicate need for help
• Receive patron feedback
• Payment

Pain Points

• Menu can be overwhelming if too complex or printed poorly, or if restaurant delivers a low-lighting environment
• Waiter must memorize complex, typically changing info (allergens, daily specials)
• Customer may get interrupted by waiter before they’re ready to order, or conversely may wait too long before waiter takes order (same with requesting bill)
• Customers frustrated by lack of status updates, especially if kitchen is running behind
• Waiter must guess priorities amongst seated patrons to figure out check-ins
• Customer may not get a chance to deliver feedback to restaurant staff, either due to timing or because they don’t want to relay it face-to-face.

Possible Solutions

• Menu navigation
  • Users can search, zoom, and otherwise easily navigate a menu if displayed on the table (particularly helpful for low-vision users)
• Menu item detail display
  • Users can look up salient information for dishes (e.g. allergens) and discover daily specials without bogging down waiter.
• Dish status display
  • Users can check on status of their order, adding transparency to the dining experience
• “Help” button
  • Users can signal using a “help” button on the touchscreen that they:
    • Need help (e.g. request extra plates)
    • Would like to order
    • Would like to pay
  • In turn, restaurant staff gets real-time feedback on customers’ needs so they can better prioritize their navigation route around the restaurant.
• Easy payment
  • If paying through credit card or online platform, customers can initiate payment through the touchscreen
• Feedback
  • Users can deliver immediate feedback about the restaurant. Convenience and availability may encourage more frequent feedback, as opposed to Yelp reviews which require the use of one’s personal device.
  • Additionally, this solution allows for more candid, constructive feedback. Shy customers can leverage this solution if they don’t want to relay it to the waiter; dissatisfied customer can deliver constructive criticism and hopefully mitigate their frustrations before potentially taking it to Yelp and damaging the establishment’s reputation

I would prioritize the menu navigation, menu item detail display, and “help” button since they will likely benefit the most customers and generally improve accessibility. These solutions still maintain the human interaction aspect of dining while alleviating cognitive load for restaurant patrons and staff alike.

Metrics

• Customer satisfaction based on feedback

Tradeoffs

• May less personal if check-ins that waiters would traditionally do are primarily handled by technology
• Incorporating a status indicator for dishes adds more tasks to the kitchen staff, potentially distracting them from their work (especially during lunch and dinner rushes)
• Payment solution only caters to those using credit cards or platforms like PayPal, Venmo, etc.
• Touchscreen may serve as a distraction, reducing the human interaction aspect of eating out

First I would like to clarify what is the goal of this design.

Is our goal to Improve the user experience/customer satisfaction in restaurant? So this will be our NorthStar Metric — Customer Satisfaction Rate.

I am going to assume that’s a ‘Yes’

I would next like to understand if we have any constraints in terms of budget, technological limitations in the geography where we are designing this touchscreen table. I am going to assume that the Geography we are considering is US where we have advanced and stable wireless technologies and that there are no limitations in terms of budget.

Now following are some assumptions I will make:

1. We are designing this touchscreen for people who do not have any disability
2. The restaurant has a stable wireless connection
3. I am going to assume that this is a traditional restaurant model where when a person orders food the waiter brings it to the table and clears away the table once the person is done eating.

Now, let me identify a user persona ‘Kat’, a customer of the restaurant. Now the critical activities that Kat does while she is in the restaurant are:

User journey:

Customer Arrives –> She is directed to a table –> She is given the menu –> She orders food –> Waits for her food to arrive –> She is given her cutleries and towel –> Food Arrives –> Customer eats –> (Maybe orders for more food) –> (Food Arrives)–>(Person eats) –>Pay for food –>Waiter clears away the table

Critical Activities for the user:

1. Orders Food
2. Eats Food
3. Pays for Food

Let me define what are the pain-points/use-cases for each activity:

1. Order Food:

   a) Is given a physical menu, looks through the menu to identify what she wants to eat

   b) Kat also has her kids hence she needs to wait for them to pick one, they don’t know how to read the menu / they are confused which one to pick from the plethora of options.

   c) Picks one and waits for the waiter to come to her and then tells him/her what she wants

2. Eats Food:

   a) Waits for her food to arrive

   b) Has to wait for the waiter to come again for her to place order for more food

3. Pays for Food:

   a) Waiter arrives with bill – needs to wait for that

   b) Checks bills,

   c) She signs the bills, provides the tip amount

   d) Hands over the card to the waiter

   e) Waits for the waiter to arrive back with the card

I would like to pick the first activity and brainstorm solutions for the pain points under this activity, would that be ok. My rationale is that automating this process could significantly cut down time when the user is hungry and hence improve customer satisfaction.

So brainstorming solutions for Ordering food:

I would like to design a age friendly touchscreen ordering solution for the restaurant:

1. Pick your meal from where you are: In this solution, every table has a touch screen for every user seated at the table. The user can activate the touchscreen by touching the table surface, which opens the menu. Now the user can sort through stuff and pick their food and place the order.
2. Auto Detection: This feature allows the menu on the table to be sorted out and shown depending on whether a kid /adult sits on the chair. We can use the weight to decide this and if it is a kid, we can show them visually appealing images for the menu items so the kids don’t have to read through menus and can pick one they like.
3. Timer: When an order is placed, the minimum wait time for the order can be calculated and shown to the user, this can also be used to track whether orders are delivered on time to the customer by the waiters in the restaurant.

Recommendation:

My recommendation would be to first go with Feature 1, without which feature 2 and 3 would make no sense.

Metrics:

Our north start metric is Customer Satisfaction rate, we can do A/B Testing to understand the success of our feature.

Tradeoff:

1. In the second feature, this may pose an issue where kids pick too many things, so for every item the kids pick, the item can be sent to an adult who identifies themselves of mom/dad while setting up their own menu from their touchscreen.
2. Customers who are used to the traditional model of ordering food might find it difficult to change ways
3. Customers might have issues in using this design because they are tech savvy and might not know how to use it.

1. First I will talk about this restaurant space in general. Types of restaurants, trends, think about how we can offer something that is differentiated to a viable buyer.
2. Vision / mission of this product
3. User segments – pick one
4. Define user goals, user journey, needs/pain points
5. Think about solutions to their pain points (10 min)
6. Then I’d pick one or two of the solutions and define the features in more detail, as it ties to user journey. I’ll define tradeoffs

1.Restaurant space

When I think about restaurants, I think about different types of them and different experiences.

• Fast food restaurant (mcdonalds etc). drive thru
• chain restaurants – applebees, chilis, red robin, etc
• sandwich spots (order up front and eat at the restaurant) like togos’ subway
• mom and pop restaurants – corner chinese restaurant
• casual, low key restaurants: pizza place
• higher end restaurants: steak house, seafood place, etc.
• High end cuisine – michelin star restaurants

When I think of touchscreen table, it has has a functional purpose in a resturant setting. Some ideas are

• order food
• call your waiter
• entertainment – play games, watch things.

Now, I’m thinking about where a good intersection of restaurant and touchscreen table would be for a good market opportunity if we’re making this touchscreen table and want to market it to.

• Eliminate fast food because a lot of people don’t want to spend time in the restaurant, usually drive thru.
• Eliminate mom and pop restaurants: they usually are family owned and operation on very small margins.
• Eliminate high end: the atmosphere is sophisticated, dimly lit, quiet. They want to provide a quiet and intimate dining experience. Not ideal for the potential sounds and lights of a touchscreen table. Not the first target to tackle.
• Causal chain restaurants: Top opportunity. These places emphasize casual, fun with friends and family type of dining experience. The chain restaurants can have the capital expenditure budget to place touchscreen tables to their restaurants.

2 Mission of product:

In summary: we are looking to design a touch screen table that we can sell to casual chain restaurants who want to provide a fun and friendly dining experience to their customers.

3.User Types

Let’s think about the potential users who are frequenting these casual chain restaurants and their needs

User Types

• couples dining on a date
• single diners
• friends get together
• families eating out
• families get together
• people celebrating special occasions like birthday, anniversary

Now, let’s go thru each one and see where it makes sense to focus on. I’m prioritizing the user type based on the size (how many potential users) and unmet needs.

• couples dining on a date – not big needs for entertainment there, they’re focusing on each other’s company
• single diners – can benefit these people but there are usually not so many single diners so the target audience will be low. Plus a lot of people have their own personal devices to keep busy and entertained.
• friends get together – unmet needs, want to socialize and have fun in novel ways. large # of diners.
• families eating out – unmet needs, especially to entertain kids. Though some existing solutions like smart phones to do that.
• people celebrating special occasions like birthday, anniversary – unmet needs, can help them to make this event special. size is small.

I’m going to pick Friends get together as a segment to focus on because our vision for this product is to provide a fun and friendly dining experience. Friends who get together want novel ways of having fun together, but the current existing ways of a)their own personal devices aren’t a “togetherness” experience. So, there’s an unmet need there to make the entertainment a more shared experience.

User Goals, Journey, Pain Points/Needs

User Type we’re focusing on is “Friends get together”

Core goals of friends who get together in a restaurant are:

• want to have a shared experience
• want to catch up with friends
• have fun together
• strengthen relationships
• eat and drink

With these user core goals in mind, I will explore different use cases to identify a user’s need towards achieving that goal. I will create a user journey map to help me think about the various needs users may have at each stage of the process.

5.User Journey, Thoughts, Pain points

The below list shows the user journey, and associated needs

1. get to restaurant, sit down and order food

• Want to get everybody’s input to the shared appetizers and find good ones
• Want to order as people come in, don’t want to wait till everybody is here
• want to hear my friends’ recommendations on what to eat/drink in this place

2.Catch up with friends

• Want to share photos from my phone with everybody in the table.
• Want to call a friend who couldn’t make it and chat with them

3.Eat and drink

• want to give a review for this restaurant
• want to order more food, quickly

4.Do something fun together

• Want to play something fun together – interactive game like – trivia, pictionary, pong, etc
• want to watch an sports game together

5.capture memories, take photos, and vidoes, share

• I want a way to see the photos we just took and share them

6.Plan for what to do next after the meal

• I want to see events happening around us (like live bands, bars)
• I want to see movies to go to etc

7.Pay

• Need a quick way to figure out how much everybody needs to pay and process the payment

6.Solutions

I will use possible ideas for solutions to these use cases

• Transform restaurant to a game room experience – play together. A variety of group games available to play — an eco system of apps that can be built by 3rd party developers. Can play games with other diners around the world.
• Bring virtual people to the experience of dining. This idea will revolutionize the way we see restaurant experience. Currently it is seen as a way to get together with people in the physical world. But with this idea, you can bring additional people virtually into that experience
• Sharing of digital content (photos/vidoes) with friends, watch together. People can connect to the table via Bluetooth and share the photos/vidoes on the screen. (similar to screen share).
• Next generation of food ordering. Digital menus, recommendations, food picker based on people’s preferences
• Transform restaurant into a viewing experience of different types of content. Watch live stream concerts together, or sports, or even movies

I will prioritize the solutions across impact to the user’s goal and complexity of development.

• Transform restaurant to an game room experience – High value, High effort
• Bring virtual people to the experience of dining. High value, Very High effort –will require more sophisticated hardware beyond a “touchscreen table” to make it an immersive experience)
• Sharing of digital content (photos/vidoes) with friends, watch together. Medium value, Medium effort
• Next generation of food ordering. Digital menus, recommendations, food picker based on people’s preferences. Medium value, – For people going to casual chains, selecting of food isn’t the most major pain point. Medium effort
• Transform restaurant into a viewing experience of different types of content. Medium value, Very high effort (sports/movie viewing experience on a “table” isn’t going to work because you have food on the table too. This requires something beyond a table.)

Based on the prioritization above, I want to focus on the “Transform restaurant experience to a game room experience. ” idea. This fits into meeting the goals of the user we identified earlier, and it also brings a new way of thinking about the restaurant experience that chain would want to offer to their customers.

7.Solution Details

Let me talk about the solution in more detail

Friends book an arcade type table when they make the reservation. This table is ideally part of a booth type of setup where there’s some sort of sound insulation in order not disturb the other patrons too much

• the table has interactive menu where you can pick a game to play. Categories like
• card games, board games, trivial, drawing games, etc
• you can invite other friends who are not at the table with you, they can join you virtually
• once the game is selected, the layout of the screen changes to suit the game.
  • consideration: everybody should see the game easily, a personal “game play” area next to them
• there can be tournaments organized with other groups of people n the restaurant or around the world
• We can have an app store where developers can develop games for this table and people can download them

Tradeoffs

• in the layout, we need to make sure there are enough space on the table for food, plates, glasses, etc.
• sound issue: special booth can be designed so sound isn’t too disruptive to other patrons.
• the glass should be sturdy and not easily scratched or breakable and waterproof.