Foodventure – mobile digital platform restaurant waiting experience in the digital age

Nowadays, on average, U.S. adult eats 4.8 meals per week in restaurants (Zonca, 2013). The dining experience has become an integral part of everyday life, both for the restaurants financially and for customers who simply want to enjoy a good meal. However, popularity is almost always associated with long waiting time. This could lead to dissatisfaction overshadowing the quality of the food itself. Some would even choose to leave when they see a long waiting line in front of the restaurants. A better waiting line management system is needed to improve the waiting line experience and satisfy the impatient customers. Such a system can help restaurants gain new customers and grow brand recognition and loyalty. What should a diner’s waiting experience look like in the digital age? My work attempted to tackle this question by reinventing the waiting experience. It emphasized customer satisfaction, nudging adventurous foodies toward social engagement, and creating a culture of loyal customers in casual and fine dining restaurants. Casual dining restaurants focus mainly on the taste of their food and sometimes the promptness of the service, while fine dining restaurants offer the entire package – service, atmosphere, taste and presentation (Wikipedia). They each offer unique challenges that I aim to solve. Waiting is common yet unpleasant to many diners. But, if used in the correct way, the waiting process can be important to maintain or even increase customer satisfaction. If service provider has been putting money, time and attention to improve perceived quality of service, then investing in wait time optimization might as well result in significant payback. A waiting line is an important positive indicator to uninformed consumers. My thesis work is to create a social engagement process to nudge customers to find other adventurous foodies with similar dietary preferences who they can choose to share a table with. This can reduce objective waiting time and increase cognitive waiting time acceptance probability. Increased customer satisfaction then improves evaluation of the restaurant and promotes repeat purchases.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.F.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art and Design

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Lu, Fei

Contributors dc:contributor

• Reeder, Kevin
• Weightman, David
• Benson, Eric
• Karahalios, Karrie G.

• Social engagement
• Service design
• UI/UX Design
• Restaurant
• Waiting experience

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Fei Lu

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/93073

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/93073