easy eats
“The minimal contact dine-in experience”
The onset of COVID 19 back in 2020 changed the way that we interact with each other, including when it involves eating and interacting in a restaurant setting. While some places closed their doors completely, others implemented a number of DIY solutions to keep both staff and their customers feeling safe.
How can the restaurant experience make healthy sense again after COVID restrictions [were] lifted, knowing customers will likely continue to be wary of their health and exposure?
ux/ui // process
user personas
Cautious Clara
Clara is a waitress who needs to keep working and loves her job as a waitress, but wishes that she could do so while physically interacting with guests less in order to better maintain her health.
Shy Sam
Sam has social anxiety, and is shy when it comes to talking to strangers in general. He wants to support local restaurants by dining in, but would be more comfortable with less interaction.
Mindful Maddie
Maddie is a frequent restaurant-goer who enjoys the experience, but wants to be mindful of her health and wants an option that will reduce chances of spreading diseases.
initial explorations: physical products
our initial explorations focused on the sanitization of table areas, experimenting with the idea of how to cut down the time that the staff will need to spend cleaning the areas instead of actually helping customers.
UV Sanitization - Fixtures
Targeted UV light fixtures could be utilized to sanitize tables and sections of the building that people regularly touch, but it takes time to complete cycles and wouldn’t make sense to keep on overnight.
UV Sanitization - Automatic Tabletop Device
Automated (or manual) UV light table sanitization could be used to run across tables overnight, but this option takes time and would not be cost-effective enough to justify saving a few minutes to wipe down tables manually.
Exchangeable Tabletops
Tables could have tops that have rollers that can flip the top between guests, cutting the number of times tables need to be cleaned in half. This somewhat exists in paper tops and would double the cleaning time after two guests dine at the table.
further exploration: physical products
more ideas revolved around air filtration systems, which would contain the table area and constantly move the air out of the building. Our research showed that, while effective, this method would be expensive, likely bulky, definitely expensive for the restaurant owners and wouldn’t get past building managers.
definitive focus area: interactive solution
designing something that would limit the amount of physical interaction needed between a restaurant’s staff and its customers is a more efficient way to make the dining experience feel safer while still keeping the atmosphere similar to where it was before the pandemic.
function overview
our interface minimizes the number of times the staff needs to physically come to their tables, only coming when called and bringing whatever is specified by the notification that they get from their tables’ tablets, and not needing to be present for payment at all, unless the customer uses cash.
after surveying restaurant staff, the effectiveness of our overall concept was validated
but the financial cost of the devices to the restaurant owners and the extra time needed to sanitize the device between customers was deemed not worth it.
user journey in-app map
I compiled the final list of functions into a map to figure out how the app will flow throughout the meal, being as useful as possible without taking over the dining experience or being too difficult to figure out.
initial aesthetic direction
My initial aesthetic and functional direction of the app served as a blueprint for the layout of the app, but the default colors and details were changed in order to make it fit more types of everyday restaurants.
under construction below here — my apologies
what can restaurant owners change?
The content of the app is completely changeable within the layout. Owners/managers are able to make the app completely tailored to their restaurant, and can make it feel like something they would have had custom-made.
INITIAL DESIGN CONCEPT
the combination 3xLOGIC // PACOM booth largely focuses on the openness of the booth, including two semi-enclosed meeting spaces, multiple demo areas and a lot of storage, while providing an eye-catching quality due to the height of the structure.
