How to use Design Thinking to run a steakhouse
By: Chen Liu
Tags: Design Process, User Experience Design, Interaction Design, UX Design, Experience Design

1. The Strategy level

If I want to run a steakhouse, I should be clear of what my business goal is, and this is also what’s included in the strategy level. Of course I’d like to get revenue from my business, but except this, I also should be aware of who my target users are, aka who I want to serve. On the other side, to make my business valuable in the long run, I should think about the brand as well. Once customers think about steak, they will think about my steakhouse.

Why do customers go to a steakhouse? Maybe they really love steak, spend time with family or friends, or even it’s as simple as they are hungry. Anyway, all of these are the reasons. In other words, that’s the “problems’’ my steakhouse can solve for them. Thus, building the Strategy level includes business goals, strategy, target users, problems it solves and the brand.

After figuring out my target customers, I should think of what I want to serve them, only steak? Apparently no, comparing to other steakhouses, yes, my competitors, I found they all serve other food. My target customers also want more than steak, so I should satisfy them as well. To be clear of the scope is what I need to do next. For example, except steak, I’d like to serve red wine for sure, then side dishes, appetizer and dessert at least. Meanwhile, I should be more specific about each category, such as what kind of red wine, the price, year and etc. However, how about serving fries and fried fish??? Serving fries might make sense, if my customers really want, but fried fish is not. At least I would like to serve beef related food for maintaining my brand. Otherwise, it hurts and it’s hard to win customers back when they have a negative image.

2. The Scope Level

People come to the steakhouses for different reasons and also at different times. For example, some people come for lunch and others come for dinner, so I should be ready at night and spend most of my resources, like human resources and materials. Basically nobody comes in the morning for breakfast, so I don’t open the door at 8 a.m. If I do, either I will definitely start losing money, such as human resources cost and utilities, or I can change it to Wendy’s lol…just kidding, I know it’s open for 24 hours haha…. but you know what I mean. As the owner, I should be clear of the user scenarios and prioritize them for maximizing the business value. Therefore, figuring out the scope of business and their key user scenarios are the core of Scope level.

3. The Structure level

Then let’s think about the Structure level. From my point of view, it covers two sections. First, the structure of all the processes and the structure of each part. In a product, it’s the interaction of a workflow and the information architecture on a screen or page.

Let’s use the workflows of cooking and bringing the food to customers as examples. The process is that a chef gets an order, and now he’s in the kitchen. He passes the food to a waiter, and the waiter brings it to the customers. Then the whole process is done. The structure here is like how the chef receives the order, who is going to take the food when it’s ready to serve and how that person brings the food to the customers. Even more specific like at what time the waiter takes the food and using which tray, which path that person goes to bring the food, from which side of the table that the waiter puts the food and etc. The general order of the whole process, and the specific orders of each behavior is what the structure level covers.

4. The Skeleton level

Now we finally come to the last one, the Skeleton level. As the steak or other food are what customers pay for, we treat them as “the products”. At this level, we can talk about the layout, what food we should provide and how to present them on a plate. If we say the three levels above are the logic and foundation behind the scenes, the presentation is basically what customers see once it’s on the table but without visual design. For example, if a customer orders a steak with mash potato as the side dish. Should we use one big plate for two types of food? Or on two plates to separate them? If two plates, how are we going to arrange them on a tray? The layout, left and right? Up and down? Where to place the steak on a plate? On the side or in the center? That’s what we should solve at this Skeleton level.

In the end, we have the Surface level left. Even though visual designers should take care of this part, l’d like to mention it a bit by using the same example. It’s like the colors of the food. If I order medium rare, once I cut the steak, it should look pink or red inside. If it’s brown, sorry, it’s overcooked :P.

Except those parts I mentioned above, of course there are tons of details an owner should take care of, such as the location, vendors, marketing, menu design and customer services. In the end, if you are a designer or have design background, I hope you have a clear view of the elements; and if you are not, I hope you have learned how designers work.

Thanks for reading!

#designthinking #ux #userexperience #interactiondesign #design