Spotsnseats
Easing restaurant reservation for Africans.
Spotsnseats helps diners discover and reserve fine dining experiences, also offering valuable insights for restaurant managers.
Role
Product Designer
Platform
Mobile
Background
The current food market in the Middle East and Africa is valued at USD 60 billion and is projected to grow by <=7% annually. Although organised fine dining represents a fair fraction (USD 2-10 billion), many restaurants are constantly met with challenges such as floor management, getting visibility, delivery, etc. In turn, guests most times have to comb through social media to find, plan and book dining experiences.
The goal of the project was to build a platform to;
- allow guests to find and book the best dine-in experiences.
- enable business manage bookings and grow visibility.
Spotsnseats
Research and Insight
To better understand how organised restaurants currently manage bookings, and how fine dining enthusiasts find experiences, I had physical and virtual chats with managers of top restaurants in Lagos and “blind” booked experiences solo and with friends as a form of dog-fooding test.
From my findings, I realised that ;
- many restaurants despite having a management tool, still use paper and Google sheets to track reservations. Some of reasons shared were the learning curve, and difficulty with manually updating details.
- reservations can come via different social channels like mail, Instagram, phone bookings and it’s particularly for difficult team shifts to keep track off.
- new restaurants with great location and offering still struggle with visibility.
-
-
-
Ideation
Looking for solutions, I examined companies already providing similar solutions and how they solve these problems like Dinesurf and OpenTable. Other ideas that counted as “wow” features include;
- VIP reservations
- Restaurant Clubs/communities with special discounts for loyal members.
- Badges and rankings for frequent diners
-
-
-
Solutions
Authentication
Diners need to verify their phone numbers for contact purposes in cases of late arrival. Emails can used as secondary verification for personalised content, notifications and marketing.
Authentication Flow
Restaurant Details Page
Key informations such as opening hours, menu and policies were represented in the restaurant page. New custom menu categories can be added to fit growth/marketing needs.
Restaurant Details Page
Restaurant Reservation
To make a reservation, diners must indicate guest size amongst other details. Some restaurants have a minimum spend and require some deposit for specific guest sizes. Restaurants can also attach a policy notice that diners must agree to before payments.
Once reservation is confirmed, calendar events are generated for diners with verified email address.
Reservation Flow
Manage Reservation
On arrival, guest can present their reservation details screen and be shown the restaurant’s menu immediately after check-in. They also get a rating prompt to share their experience by end of day.
Reservation Management
Profile Management
Diners can add up to 3 cards, track transactions and custom what notifications they what to receive and their respective channels.
Profile Management