Assignment | Seeing The World Through A Design Lens
This is a "field trip" opportunity. Invite a friend or two to join you on an outing to any place that offers hospitality service. It can be a restaurant or a café.
Shift yourself into a "design lens" mode. Observe all aspects of the service as you and your friends experience it and invite your friends to join you. This is an opportunity to teach them what you already know. As Professor Rancourst suggests, proceed with a beginner's mind, as if you have never experienced it before.
Notice how you were welcomed, the layout of the room, and your seating area. Question every detail and seek out the intention behind each.
Ponder their reasoning for deciding to do things the way they did, and if the way they are doing it feels successful to you and your friends. Consider why that might be. Then flip your thoughts to how might you have designed this process differently, and why? How would you and your friends do it differently? Be empathic to the experience other guests are having (you may ask them).
Reflect on any new perspective(s) that you have gained from this exercise. Do you feel differently for those providing this service now that you have "put yourself in their shoes"?
Be structured on how you record your observations. Consider constructing a document to fill in ahead of your visit to collect pertinent observations. After your visit, using your notes, construct a report that includes the location, day, time, and name of a person observing, along with observations, empathic review, and new perspectives. Remember to make your design lens clear and explicit.
Please share your thoughts (approximately 300 words).
Discussion (1)
I am thinking about the drive through of a fast food restaurant. The first part would be the layout of the road as the customer enters. The customer would need to slow down and usually I notice a lot if not all has the customer drive around the restaurant and then forces the driver to a lane or two as is the4 cause for Chick Fil A. In the case of Chick Fil A, the goal is speed and accuracy of the customer’s order. A number of sites have used people to take the order versus the electronic communication. The drawback of course is the comfort of the worker buys the positive is a personal exoperience between the customer and worker. It also allows the customer to ask direct questions to the worker. This design actually speeds up the wait time for the customer. It is most effective when there is a separate worker able to take payment.
All these steps can occur before the customer makes it to the window to pick up the food. The worker at the window only has to worry about making sure the correct customer gets the correct order and this is accomplished by carefully ordering the customers when being released by the worker taking the order. Chick Fil A also attaches a name to the order to help diminish mix ups.