Your 3rd Spot
A server, a tour guide, and a connector… a personal concierge right in your pocket.
T
he 3rd Spot App seeks to create a seamless experience for guests in this multi-faceted foodertainment (yes, it's a word!) space. Think Chuck E Cheese for digital urbanites in the 2020s. What does seamless experience mean? The team behind the project wanted an app that could handle all major guest interactions:
- Sign up for a membership & manage your account
- Food & Drinks:
- Order through the app
- Order deliveries to wherever guests are physically within the building
- Gaming:
- Open games with native NFT scanner
- Reserve games
- Remotely queue for games
- Receive notifications when it's your turn to play
- Match & Connect with other guests over similar interests
- Pay or split the bill anywhere, at any time
This project was innovative and well in-line with the shifting expectations of digital natives. They sought to create experience trends instead of merely following them. Initially set to launch 2020, the enthusiasm around the project didn’t dampen despite being halted for almost two years. Luckily for me, due to the delay it meant I was able to join the project.
Personas
Journey Maps
User Flow
App Map
In our initial meetings, we heavily workshopped MVP features and sought to understand the limitations of going fully digital. The team had big ideas and it was my job to manifest them. The 3rd Spot team helped me understand the IRL logistics of running a physical space and I helped them think through the inevitable digital blockers like:
- In a room with hundreds of guests and their bluetooth signals, how do you properly identify which guest a delivery is intended for?
- The solution was to place QR codes throughout the venue, guests would then scan the closest code to have their delivery dropped off there.
- What if someone has no smartphone?
- For the digitally averse, they would need to meet with a support person as they entered the building. If you are unable to access your app or account, you can’t scan in and you must use a wristband. The wristband would work to open games that had NFT scanners. All other amenities would have to be accessed the old fashioned way, ordering and checkout counters.
- Are guests allowed to stay at one game for hours at a time?
- Yes and no. If a game didn’t have a digital queue, guests could extend their play time indefinitely. Once a digital queue existed, game time was capped. Each game had a different time limit based on popularity.
- Should/How do you monitor conversations through the social feature?
- You don't. Guests are matched based on their gaming preferences and given a meeting time to play those games. Guests can't message each other unless they share their contact details.
Initial delays had allowed for a calm project timeline, regardless I didn’t want to squander any time. While still working on feature specs with stakeholders, I created our master library. Although I didn’t know every detail, I knew creating a modular UI library early would speed up the prototyping phases. Furthermore, thinking about features in a modular way allowed me to create consistent design patterns. Once the vision was clear, we moved onto creating low fi prototypes. Through ongoing design sprints we ideated, prototyped, and tested our way to the MVP.
Foundational UI
In October 2022, The 3rd Spot opened its doors in Atlanta, Georgia. The opening came as we emerged from the nth wave of COVID, thirsty for the real world. The app is definitely a trail blazer, but I earnestly believe it will not be the last to voyage into this realm.
