Tabster

iOS App | UX, UI, Branding, MVP

Who owes who what? Group payment can be a cause for headaches that Tabster set out to remedy.

I defined their brand identity, developed prototypes from low- to high fidelity and performed exhaustive testing to make splitting the bill as intuitive as possible.
Studio

Fonk


UX Collaborator

Marc Apon


 




The brand
Tabster was born out of frustration and I wanted the brand to give the exact opposite impression; a sense of ease and carefreeness. This lead me to the idea of a waiter or waitress in a fine-dining establishment - invisible until needed.

I created a toned down palette for a calm and luxurious feel.The logo combines a bowtie of a butler with the division symbol in a minimalistic way.







Challenge
First we conducted interviews to get an idea of the main pain points of the user journey without the app. We found that waiting to pay, figuring out how to split the bill and finally receive the payments were the three biggest issues.

Knowing this we went on to draw up potential solutions, and the more we tested the more edge cases and requested features surfaced, leading to even more testing. A can of worms had been opened.







Process
We began sketching ideas out that were quickly converted to rough, interactive, prototypes in Keynote. 

We tested small scenarious with groups of people that was facilitated and recorded in a bar setting. In the end we even opened a bar in the office for an evening of testing!







Solution
Opening a tab and ordering through the app was unnatural and a disturbance. Looking at your phone was perceived as anti-social and you missed out on the personal interaction at the bar.

The goal became clear; to use the app as little as possible. By integrating the app with the existing sale system in bars the staff could add orders and manage tabs remotely, with the changes automatically showing up in the app.






Result

The app was built, launched and funded with success. Tabster is still around, albeit now named TAPP and with a focus on data driven insights for the Dutch hospitality market. They are active in 64 bars and growing.













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