Case Study . Interface Design . rest

rest for restaurants

4 min readJan 9, 2018

In this case study, I will explain the process of a work done at a course of Interface Design, which the aim was developing a new application (desktop) concept on our choice. Based on my own experience working in a restaurant, where I had to deal with reservation and management issues, I have decided to create an application, “rest”, which consists on an online service dedicated to restaurants, with the core function of creating a widget, for an easy and quick incorporation, by this.

This application would enable the restaurants to have a user-friendly and intuitive system for their customers to make reservations and these are kept, updated and organized in the best way for the daily planning.

The application would have three strands, both functional and visual.

Landing Page,

it consists on the brand sale, as well as query base for those looking for using the service.

Dashboard,

it is a work environment (widget backoffice), including all restaurant management tools (tables, clients, reservations, promotions, among others).

Main features:

— possibility of having several associated restaurants;
— immediate presentation of daily reservations (lunch and dinner meals);
— data exportation (reservations, customers, …) for offline use;
— customer requests’ analysis (groups or special requests);
— combine tables, so that the whole restaurant is adaptable to groups of several people;
— analytics of customers, earnings and frequency;
— tables, reservations and promotions management;

— customer database;
— account and team management;
— widget and receipts’ customization;
— widget implementation guide.

Widget,

it is a customizable tool for restaurants, in order to meet the look of their websites. The widget is what enables restaurant customers to make a reservation. Clients, straight after their booking order is concluded, receive by email the reservation code — which enables the costumer to change and/or cancel the reservation — and reminders in newsletter format, notifying either the upcoming reservation date or the changes done.
Furthermore, it also allows the costumer to send invitations to friends through e-mail service.

Starting with the designation of the target audience (restaurants’ owners and/or managers, located in large urban centers), followed by a competition analysis (The Fork and Zomato Book)and finally a sitemap were designed, in order to differentiate the sections and pages of the application and how to navigate within it. Some hypothetical userflows were designed, giving an overview on the main tasks performed by the users.

In this way, I was able to meet certain needs that users have, in order to take advantage of what the application will have to offer.

In terms of space and positioning issues, wireframes were created to facilitate the interface design and its elements.

Subsequently, it was time to formulate its appearance, the way the application should look like. On the landing page was looking for something more vibrant, and on the dashboard, the objective would be a more sober and succinct look.

The next step consisted on “giving life” to userflows, wireframes and style tiles, making use of colors, shapes and typography, and all the visual elements I had previously defined. In this way, I ended up getting a sober product, however, vibrant when it is meant to be.

This application development could consider many other concepts such as, a system for customer bills — Dashboard ability to create customer bills by its own — and a system for tables layout — which in the dashboard, we could organize as they are currently in the restaurant, giving the possibility to specifically choose which table the costumer wants to order.