In 2011 ResDiary Host was one of the first Restaurant Reservation Apps for iPad. This gave Restaurants more space and freedom to move about their venue whilst managing their tables. By 2014 the App Store was flooded with competitors and ResDiary Plus was in dire need of improvement as more and more features bloated the App. In 2015 we released ResDiary Plus, we got back to basics with a fresh UI and a shortened list of features. ResDiary Plus was viewed by the team as a way to show the benefit of an App designed with User Centred Design at it's core.
Issues of reliability and performance with ResDiary Host were on the increase and our competitors were moving in quickly. We needed to take development in house, get back to basics and provide restaurants with a stress free, easy and enjoyable experience. ResDiary Plus needed to stand out in the crowded market.
ResDiary Host App, Designed and built by a third party developer.
Our goal for the project was to recapture the simplicity of ResDiary Host in 2011. The original premise was simple: tap a button, book a table and seat a guest. Our aim was to create a strong foundation that embraced ResDiary's rapidly evolving requirements and a more diverse user base.
Our goals were to:
1. Make it fast and easy to use for everyone, everywhere.
2. Give Restaurateurs more control over their Restaurant on the go.
3. Create a solution that could attract even the most old school Restaurants still using pen and paper.
We needed a simple reservation process. Once you completed one task it would take you to the next.
We made frequent contact with our users via surveys and interviews. We wanted to better understand how they utilised our desktop and iPad system on a daily basis.
With all that in mind, after creating the initial concepts and wireframes we used InVision and Sketch to create a very detailed prototype for as many scenarios of what our users experience in service.
With the prototypes we performed regular user testing whilst the dev team were working on the backend. This provided us with great insight, for example obscuring the table plan whilst making a reservation was causing issues for users that were used to being able to see it on desktop. This regular testing allowed us to have a very clear image of what was needed in the first version and saved a lot of time with our tight schedule.
In 2015 we launched ResDiary Plus. It was a light weight and nibble app that enabled our users quick and easy management of their Restaurant in service. The focus for ResDiary then shifted to ResDiary Now. In June 2016 the team was tasked with improving ResDiary Plus. It was a very simple brief, "Find out what we need to do to make our app better? Take a few months to research and develop new solutions to add to our roadmap."
Waitlist and Grid View launched this year with Payments expected Q1 2018.
