Enhancing the In-Venue Experience: Seamless Food Ordering at Cosm
2024
Project Overview
Cosm is an immersive venue that elevates the fan experience through cutting-edge technology. With content spanning sports, art, and music, it creates a dynamic atmosphere for unforgettable moments.
One of the venue’s standout features is its food and beverage service, allowing guests to scan a QR code and order directly to their seats at any time. This service enhances the overall experience while showcasing our chefs' creative menu offerings.
My Role
Product Designer
Collaborators
Ethan Paulson, Director of Product Design
Brian Nguyen, Senior UX Designer
Elise Xu, Senior UI Designer
The goal of this project was to enhance the guest experience at Cosm by addressing the disruption caused by a food ordering system that required guests to wait for a server or go to the bar, breaking the flow of the event. By collaborating with stakeholders, the head chef, and developers, the project aimed to design a seamless, convenience-driven solution that allows guests to order from their seats without leaving the event. This project also aimed to provide incentives to encourage repeat visits, enhancing overall engagement and ensuring a smoother, more immersive experience for guests.
Defining Core Design Features
The goals for phase 1 were defined by the key features that would shape the user experience in the food and beverage flow:
- Establishing a clear, intuitive system for food modifications.
- Determining an optimal point for login vs. guest checkout.
- Integrating a credits & discount system without adding friction.
This project also marked the team’s transition to a new design system, ensuring future designs were easily translated 1:1 with developers. Throughout the process, we expanded, refined, and documented system components to maintain consistency and efficiency in future projects.
01 Streamlining Food Modifications
Guests needed an intuitive way to customize their meals - selecting sides, adding extras, or making substitutions - without disrupting the ordering flow. Through creative iterations and design critique, I defined four distinct selection types:
- Single select for straightforward choices.
- Modifications showcasing included ingredients that could be adjusted.
- Substitutions allowing users to swap main ingredients.
- Add-ons for extras that could change the final selection price.
Defining these categories ensured a consistent, intuitive customization experience that balanced user control with efficiency.
02 Finding the Flow for Login vs. Guest Checkout
To optimize the placement of the login screen, we examined the overall user flow. Since users already scan a QR code, we minimized barriers by allowing immediate access to the menu.
This approach let users browse, select items, and review orders first. If they weren’t logged in, we introduced the login screen post-order review, making it feel like a natural part of checkout rather than an interruption.
03 Optimizing Discounts & Credits
This project introduced venue-specific credits and promo codes, enabling Cosm to offer incentives for returning fans. Credits were linked to user accounts and appeared only after login, while discounts were manually applied during checkout.
We implemented a dynamic credits section that displayed only the available credits tied to the logged-in user’s account, with the promo code input integrated in a way that ensured both were visible at the right moments without disrupting the checkout flow. This provided a seamless way to offer incentives for returning fans.
Bringing the Chef's Vision to Life
A key aspect of this project was ensuring the digital menu reflected the same level of curation and personality as the physical one. To achieve this, I collaborated closely with Chef Adam to translate his vision into an intuitive mobile interface:
- Highlighting featured menu items that showcase popular and signature dishes.
- Ensuring allergy & dietary information was clearly visible without cluttering the UI.
- Capturing the essence of Cosm's dining experience with enticing imagery.
By the end of this project, I successfully delivered a seamless food and beverage ordering experience that feels like a natural extension of Cosm’s immersive environment.
The integration of the new design system required careful consideration of both the immediate needs of this project and the potential for future features. Additionally, focusing on scalability and documentation has positioned the system for easy adaptability in future updates.
Looking ahead, this experience will be further enhanced with upcoming features that will add more personalization for user's to interact with:
- Order status updates so users can track their food in real time.
- A "favorites" feature for quick reordering of preferred items.
- User reviews and ratings to enhance engagement and refine the menu.
These additions will not only improve the overall user journey but also offer more personalized interactions, allowing users to engage more deeply with the platform. As the project evolves, these features will continue to build on the solid foundation we’ve established, further enhancing the mobile web experience.