Product Design : Restaurant Booking Assistant

Idea

For people who like to use apps to make restaurant bookings instead of calling, Alma - Restaurant Booking Assistant is a chatbot that is highly flexible. Unlike Google Assistant or Google Duplex, with Alma - Restaurant Booking Assistant, users can book a table at a nearby restaurant based on their dietary options.

User Stories

To illustrate how I would approach requirements analysis, I have created a set of functional requirements in the form of user stories to be implemented in the application.

Each story is created in the form of:

As a <persona>, I want to <action> so that <benefit/value>.

Non-functional requirements

Non-functional requirements, such as security, reliability, performance, maintainability, scalability, usability are set of requirements needed to be implemented in any application. I have created a list of if for this product design.

Wireframes

Homepage

Alma is a chatbot, hence once the user initiate a chat it will start the discussion. The user can choose from available dietary options by selecting the checkmark next to it. This list can be customized to include more options.

Once the user is happy with their selection, they click Confirm.

The bot then searches for the nearby restaurants that provide those options.

The search can be firstly done in proximity of the location, for example 1km.

Restaurant Search

The first restaurants shown in the list are the closest to the user's location. The restaurants are displayed with their name and picture.

The search area widens as the user slides left for more restaurants. To view all restaurants, the user clicks View all, and a map of all restaurants within 1km or more based on their initial choices opens.

If a user click on a restaurant from the displayed list, a map of their location opens. User can:

- view the restaurant's menu

- book a table

- back to the initial restaurant search

Book a table

If the user selects Book a table, the bot asks them to select from the available slots.

- Select the number of people: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ... (slide left for more options up to 9, then free text with a placeholder 10+)

- Date of the reservation (from that day lunch/dinner depending on the hour, last option being a calendar symbol with a calendar displayed so that the user can select for a specific date)

- Hour of the reservation (from that day lunch/dinner depending on the hour, last option being a clock symbol with an hour picker so that the user can select for a specific hour).

User clicks Continue.

The bot automatically picks user's booking details, and asks the user to either confirm them or to go back to the restaurant's search.

The bot confirms the reservation and sends the details to the restaurant.

Notes:

This is a fictional design produced by myself, any resemblance to actual applications is purely coincidental.

The views and opinions expressed here do not reflect those of my employer or any other 3rd party I might associate with.