eatnow — Redefining Dining for the Digital Age

eatnow evolved as a successor to LunchNow, a food tech startup based in Hamburg, Germany focused on connecting office workers with lunch deals at nearby restaurants. After observing shifts in dining trends and leveraging existing partnerships and data, our team was given the opportunity to develop a broader solution that addressed the needs of all dining experiences.

When we started building eatnow, I ended up being the only designer on the team, working closely with three developers and the founders to bring the product to life. Stepping up from an entry-level role to leading design in a startup was definitely a challenge, but it taught me a lot, especially how to collaborate efficiently with developers and the founders in an agile environment. Because of my diverse skill set, I was able to take ownership of the entire end-to-end design process with almost complete creative freedom.

In a world where food delivery became the norm, we wanted to bring people back to restaurants by making dining out more efficient, digital, convenient, and social.

With eatnow, our team aimed to transform the dine-in experience with a digital all-in-one solution. We wanted to empower users to effortlessly discover restaurants and personalized offers, book tables, pre-order, add to order, make contactless payments, arrange to meet with others in a restaurant, and more—all from their smartphones.

At the same time, we wanted to equip restaurants with powerful tools to streamline operations, track KPIs, minimize food waste, and enhance customer satisfaction, so they can adapt confidently to an increasingly digital landscape.

In my secondary research, I’ve seen how the dining industry has shifted significantly, especially with the rise of third-party delivery services after the pandemic's contact restrictions. Even companies like Google have jumped into the digital food service space by integrating table reservations, food ordering and delivery options directly into its platforms like Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Assistant.

While our focus was on dine-in experiences, this widespread adoption of digital food services made it clear that people increasingly treat digital ordering as the default way to get their meals.

Our objective was to understand both sides of the dining experience: restaurants and their guests. Their motivations and frustrations showed us which features matter and how the product must perform in order to feel intuitive and helpful.

To support eatnow’s goals, I selected two research approaches that complement each other: semi structured interviews and field studies.

Semi structured interviews gave us a consistent structure for comparison while still allowing participants to share deeper motivations and unexpected behaviors.

Field studies in four restaurants revealed real constraints, workflow gaps, and service issues that are often invisible in interviews. Observing interactions from arrival, seating, ordering, waiting, and paying, to leaving, helped us validate what guests and staff shared.

Across the results of both methods, we identified 8 recurring pain points due to inefficient systems and human error:

Through an analysis of close competitors, I wanted to identify examples of successful user experience. I also gathered design and user flow inspirations that we could apply.

One thing became clear early on: there are several food apps in Europe offering digital dine-in solutions,  and many delivery and table reservation apps, but none provides a unified consumer-facing dine-in experience like eatnow. Although I exclusively found indirect competitors, this research offered valuable insights into industry standards.

Based on the information and insights we gathered from the research, we kicked off brainstorming sessions to explore how we could address the pain points and translate market trends into real product opportunities. These maps helped us organize and visualize what each part of the experience could offer. Every idea stayed connected to user needs, competitive signals, and business goals.

For the customer app, we focused on elevating the dine-in experience through simple ordering that feels social and made dining more fun, with a strong emphasis of personalization features.

On the restaurant side, we identified a clear need for a partner dashboard, reliable POS integration, and a staff-facing service app. The goal was to improve operational efficiency, support quicker decision making, and help teams deliver better service during busy hours. Restaurants should be able to run smoother while spending more time on hospitality.

I aimed to create a brand identity that feels exciting, innovative, and playful, to achieve an unforgettable personality that captures the fun of dining out while blending it with a tech-forward experience.

High-contrast colors, bold typography, confident messaging, and playful UI elements came together to create a brand that stands out.

Initially, I designed eatnow’s first screens in Adobe XD. Later, I redesigned the project in Figma to take advantage of its more advanced features.