GameDay David Poore – Cameron Luck – Alexa Kaminsky – Social Sporting Experience

BackgroundBackground  We wanted to redesign the restaurant experience.  Problem: People at restaurants only interact with the people that they come with.  We want to encourage interaction between different groups of people at the restaurant and make it a pleasurable experience.  Our solution was to make an interactive sports restaurant called GameDay.

Initial Concept  Our initial concept revolved around the ideas of rotating tables.  There was going to be two "rings" of tables, arranged in a circle around the center of the main dining room. The inner ring was going to rotate occasionally (every 20 minutes or so), which would pair up new groups of people and encourage them to get to know one another. Because it was a sports bar, all patrons would share a common interest, which would make it easier for them to converse with one another.

MethodologyMethodology  To test if our idea of a sports bar with rotating tables would work, we decided to observe an actual sports bar, Taco Mac Midtown, and interview different people at Taco Mac.  We observed Taco Mac on a game night from 7 pm to 8:30 pm and interviewed a patron at the bar and one of the waiters.

 After observing Taco Mac and interviewing a patron and an employee of Taco Mac, our research suggested that the rotating table idea would not work well in a sports bar.  Our group decided to scrap that idea and start fresh based on the input of our interviewees and our observations at Taco Mac. Research Outcomes

New Design  Our modified design is a two-story restaurant, with a large bar on the second floor and tiered, stadium-like table seating on the first floor.  The stadium seating is oriented to focus toward a huge "jumbo-tron" screen that takes up almost an entire wall of the restaurant, with a stadium-like area for performances underneath.  The second floor will only extend over about half of the restaurant, with one side overlooking the stadium seating and stage like a balcony.  The idea is to have a "featured" sporting event shown on the jumbo-tron each night, with the stadium area converted (with simple floor mats, etc.) to look like the proper venue for that sporting event (i.e. a basketball court for basketball games). People can see the big screen both from the stadium-style table seating and from the edge of the second- floor balcony.

New Design Continued  The second level would incorporate the most important feature we found in our research - the bar.  We decided to use a "double horseshoe" design that would provide areas for people to both sit alone, and to converse across the bar with other people.  In addition to the bar, there would also be tables along the back wall with individual TVs for people who want to watch less popular sports, or who want to have a sit-down dinner but don't want to be in the stadium seating.

 Much like attending a sporting event live, the idea here is to have people who don't know each other all focusing on a single spectacle, and interacting by cheering for the same team (or jeering at the opposition).  In order to further encourage the "gameday" atmosphere, the stadium area (beneath the jumbo-tron) would have mascots, cheerleaders, and other common performers at sporting events putting on a show during the commercials and halftime of the featured event.  Waiters/waitresses would wear referee uniforms, and when waiting for their seats, patrons would be given ticket stubs as though they were waiting in line at an arena.  Ideas such as the "kisscam", mascots shooting T-shirt cannons into the audience, displaying patrons on the jumbo-tron, or having audience members compete in small contests could all be incorporated to invoke the atmosphere of a big game. New Design Continued

ScenarioScenario

Future Work and Significance  Build physical prototype and see how people interact with others before going ahead and building GameDay  Use the same research and methodology to develop other social restaurants that revolve around other themes besides sports bars  We have learned that restaurants can encourage social interaction without forcing patrons to be social if they do not want to be