The flow of a resturant (Harvester Shorehouse)

After working all summer for a Harvester chain resturant, I have enough knowlage of the layout and how customers act in the building to analyse the foot traffic and interactability of the resturant. Already I think the layout doesn't work effectivly but now I will find out exactly why.

I have drawn a rough not to scale floor plan of the resturant I worked at and then drew on it the popular routes customers and staff walk while in the building. Where the colour is strongest is where the most foot traffic is. This makes it quite obvious where is too crowded and where is neglected.

The front of the bar is usually the first thing customers notice, and encourages them to go further inside the entrance, but if they are there to eat, customers usually notice the host to the right of them where they wait to be seated. This works well for how people first enter the restaurant. The only slight issue is when customers who are only buying drinks, approach the front of the bar because the see it, and often have to be told to wait round the other corner of the bar, where they will be served out of the way of staff picking up ordered drinks from the front.

The small seating area directly to the left of the entrance goes unnoticed quite easily because of the natural attraction of the host point and bar, people do not look left. This however was actually planned as that section is often closed unless we are busy enough, or is used for big parties of people, providing them with a fairly private section to eat in.

The free salad is the USP of the Harvester chain, so the salad bar, bread and sauce station and Pepsi machine, all where customers help themselves too at any point, are always the busiest part of the resturant. When it was designed, they obviously wanted the three most used contact points to be close together which makes sense, but the fact that it's all too close to the kitchen doors; the busiest area for staff, makes that middle section of the resturant too packed and ultimatly makes movement difficult for everyone involved. It infact can become dangerous because of young children running, and staff carrying hot plates.

The other touch points of the resturant, excluding whichever table the customer is sat at on their visit, are the toilets. As you can see on my diagram, the toilets behind the bar area are rarely used even though the are the only male toilets in the building, whereas females have toilets in both the toilet areas. I remember having to inform male customers where the toilets were, understandably because how out of the way and hidden they were. As I mentioned previously, around the corner of the bar doesnt not encourage people to go there and so customers to not think to look for anything right at the back.