What was the problem?
In busy venues, counter-based ordering creates queues, errors, and staff bottlenecks. Customers want a fast, self-serve mobile experience, while venues need a flow that supports high throughput without increasing complexity.
What was the solution?
A modern, user-friendly system with an integrated tracker and app connectivity was introduced that bridged the gap online ordering and the dine in digital experience. Customers could easily see the status of their orders, reducing uncertainty and staff interruptions, while creating a smoother, more satisfying dine-in experience.
What did the research show?
Customers could complete orders successfully, but often lacked reassurance
and visibility while waiting.
Across the research, three patterns emerged consistently:
QR code scanning
No learning curve
Most users instinctively opened their phone’s camera to scan the QR code, without needing any guidance.
Not a blocker
These features weren’t essential, because users already had their own ways of handling these scenarios.
Loyalty rewards
Table stakes, not a bonus
For users, loyalty just felt like it should work everywhere — in-store, online, and on their phone.
What did I observe in-store?
To understand how BYOD worked day to day, I spent time in restaurants observing customers and speaking directly with front-of-house staff with our research team. This helped me see how digital ordering fit into real service flows — and where it created extra work or friction behind the scenes.
This map helped me identify moments of friction and handoff between staff and customers.
This map helped me pinpoint key moments of friction and handoff between staff and customers.
Loyalty
Staff regularly had to explain to customers that their loyalty rewards couldn’t be used in-store. This was a common moment of disappointment and often required extra reassurance at the table.
Discounts
Popular discounts, such as Cineworld memberships, weren’t supported in the digital flow. When customers tried to use them, staff had to step in and process orders manually, breaking the self-serve experience.
How did I design the core BYOD experience?
With the core priorities defined, I focused on designing the essential BYOD flow — from scanning the QR code through to confirming an order. I aimed to make the experience feel fast, familiar, and reassuring, without introducing unnecessary complexity.
The tracker made the wait feel shorter because I knew what stage my meal was at.
After: Customer satisfaction
What did I choose not to ship (yet)?
While there were several features users might expect from a mature digital ordering experience, not everything was right to ship on day one. I deliberately phased delivery to protect the core experience — focusing first on speed, clarity, and reliability before layering in more complex behaviours.
Balancing speed, stability, and long-term value:
Planned for a later phase
Group ordering was expected, but research showed users already had informal workarounds. Shipping this early would have added session and payment complexity before the core flow had stabilised.
Why it waited:
To avoid increasing cognitive load and operational risk during initial rollout.
Deferred until core checkout was reliable
While split payments are valuable in social dining contexts, they introduce significant complexity at checkout. Early research showed speed and clarity mattered more than payment flexibility during dine-in service.
Why it waited:
To reduce checkout friction and avoid failed or abandoned transactions.
Users expected loyalty to “just work” across channels. While full parity wasn’t feasible in phase one, we focused on surfacing value clearly — showing applied vouchers and earned rewards to meet expectations without blocking orders.
Why it waited:
To balance user expectations with technical constraints, without harming conversion.
What impact did this have?
By prioritising speed, clarity, and reassurance in the initial release, I delivered a stable core BYOD flow that reduced uncertainty for customers and interruptions for staff. Instead of aiming for feature completeness, I focused on building confidence at the table and using early signals to inform subsequent improvements.
Simplifying the scan-to-menu flow helped users reach the menu and begin ordering more quickly.
REFLECTION