E-Café: An Innovation for Providing Safe Services in a Dine-in Restaurant

during the New and the Next Normal

Patravadee Vongsumedh
School of Information Technology and Innovation,
Bangkok University, Pathumthani, Thailand
E-mail: patravadee.v@bu.ac.th

********

Abstracts *

Due to the spread out of COVID-19, the global restaurant industry was highly impacted.
The number of sit-in customers dropped out to zero in many countries. To fulfill the
requirements of restaurant operators in operating the dine-in services during the spread out of
COVID-19 and to restore the customers’ confidence in dine-in services provided by the
restaurant operators, the objectives of this research and development are 1) to develop a
responsive web-based application used for supporting the services in the dine-in restaurant and
2) to evaluate the opinions and satisfaction of both restaurant operators and customers toward
the system prototype. The system development tools are Visual Studio Code, PHP, HTML, and
Bootstrap Framework. The development life cycle of the system prototype was divided into 4
phases, which are 1) system requirements specification 2) system design 3) system
implementation and 4) system prototype evaluation. The implemented system prototype
consists of 7 functions, which are 1) To Manage User Account 2) To Manage Menu 3) To Manage
Food Order’s Status 4) To Browse Menu 5) To Order Food 6) To Track Food Order’s Status and 7)
To Calculate the Food Cost and Service Fee. In the final phase of system development, the system
prototype was evaluated by the dine-in service stakeholders. The 2 restaurant managers and 8
waitpersons from the supportive restaurant were invited to participate the group interview. The
interview results indicated that the proposed system prototype enabled the restaurant operators
in providing dine-in services safely and effectively. The system prototype helped waitpersons
and customers to avoid unnecessary contact. Moreover, 32 customers were invited to evaluate
the system through an e-questionnaire by giving satisfaction scores in 3 aspects (i.e., the
appropriateness of user interface, the system efficiency and effectiveness, and the overall
satisfaction of self-preventive practices by using the system prototype). The customers’ total
satisfaction score towards the system prototype is 4.45 (S.D. = 0.59), which means very
satisfied. The evaluation results, overall, showed that the proposed system prototype
successfully supported the operations relate to dine-in services. The system prototype,
additionally, satisfied the need of social distancing and reducing personal contact.

Keywords: E-Café; Responsive Web; Web-based Application; Innovation for Dine-in

Services; Providing Safe Services

*
Received: November 24, 2022; Revised: December 25, 2022; Accepted: December 27, 2022
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Introduction
After the spread out of COVID-19 in 2020, the global restaurant industry was highly
impacted. Due to the social-distancing restrictions and lockdown policies formulated by the
government, the full dine-in restaurants were severely stressed. The number of sit-in customers
dropped out to zero in many countries. Even though, the revenue from food delivery and
takeaway sales significantly increased, especially in Thailand which the growth of food
delivery sales proportion increased over 30 percent during the lockdown, it was not enough for
running the business (Kasikorn Research Center, 2021 : online). Consequently, this caused a
high loss of employment and revenue (Dube, Nahmo, Chikodzi, 2021 : 1487-1490; Research
Center, 2021 : online). In addition, the previous research found that the sit-in customers will
not come back immediately after reopening the restaurants. Therefore, in order to restore the
customers’ confidence in dine-in services provided by the restaurant operators, the substantial
changes in their operations; especially in safety and health protocol, must be launched (Dube,
Nahmo, Chikodzi, 2021 : 1487-1490). These attempts were represented in many ways, such as
online food delivery services serving robots information system for dine-in services and take-
out or drive-thru services
In Thailand, the restaurants were closed from the government’s lockdown policy
declared in the mid of the year 2020. Although the full dine-in restaurants were allowed to
reopen in the last quarter of 2021, self-preventive practices (e.g., social distancing, personal
contact avoidance, hand washing, masking, and antigen test) have been strongly suggested to
restaurant operators. The restaurant operators need to provide dine-in services under the
conditions of COVID free environment, which involves a quality ventilation system, restaurant
cleanliness, reducing personal contact, self-monitoring and antigen testing of service providers,
and ensuring social distancing. Therefore, in order to enable restaurant operators in operating
safe dine-in services (e.g. avoiding or reducing personal contact, keeping social distancing), a
framework for developing a responsive web-based application for supporting dine-in services
was proposed. The proposed system provides a group of functions that supports the processes
of dine-in service operated by the restaurant operators, such as menu browsing, food ordering
and cancellation, and food order status tracking. Moreover, the concept of responsive web
design was applied in order to allow users to use the application from a variety of devices with
different screen sizes (e.g., desktops, tablets, mobiles). The web pages would be resized or
adjusted automatically to make them look good (or fit) on all devices (W3Schools,
2022:online). With the support of the proposed system prototype, the restaurant’s operators can
avoid or reduce the personal contact between the customer and the waitperson. After getting in
the restaurant, customers can log into the application through their mobile devices by using the
user accounts and passwords provided. Additionally, menu checking, food ordering, food order
status tracking, and bill asking can be performed through the application by the customers.

Research Objectives
The objectives of this research and development are as follows:
1) To develop a responsive web-based application used for supporting the services in
the dine-in restaurant.
2) To evaluate the opinions and satisfaction of both restaurant operators and customers
toward the system prototype.
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Research Methodology
Research Population and Sampling
1) Population:
The restaurant operators who provide the dine-in services and the customers who
receive the dine-in services in the restaurants
2) Sampling:
Based on the purposive sampling technique, 2 restaurant managers and 8 waitpersons
from a supportive restaurant were invited to evaluate the system prototype through the group
interview. Additionally, based on the simple random sampling, 32 restaurant customers, who
received the services in a dine-in restaurant through the system prototype, were invited to
evaluate the system prototype.
Research Instruments
1) Software Developing Tools:
The tools used for developing the system prototype are Visual Studio Code, PHP,
HTML, Bootstrap Framework, and MySQL.
2) System Prototype Evaluation:
At the final phase of system prototype development, the tools used for system
evaluation are (1) the interview questions used for evaluating the opinions of the restaurant
operators on the system prototype and (2) the e-questionnaire used for evaluating the
satisfaction of restaurant customers towards the system prototype. All questions shown in these
tools were validated by 3 domain experts in the area of software development. The index of
Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) of all questions are rated from 0.67 to 1.00, which indicated
that all questions clearly measured the identified objectives.
Software Development Processes
Phase 1: System Requirements Specification
In order to identify the system scope and operations clearly, 3 representatives from
supportive restaurant (i.e., one restaurant manager and 2 waitpersons) were invited to
participate the group interview. The group interview was set up to identify users’ requirements,
criteria of operations, and procedures of dine-in services. The interview questions were
prepared and sent to the interviewees 2 weeks before the interview session. After group
interview, the identified system functions, which were determined by 3 groups of system’s
target user, were listed in Table 1. The use case diagram, as shown in Figure 2, then, was
created to represent system functions (or use cases) and related actors.
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Table 1 System’s Use Cases

System’s Target Users

No. Use Cases Description Restaurant
Waitpersons Customers
Manager
1 To Manage To manage (i.e., create,
User edit, and delete) the user
 - -
Account accounts of all groups of
user.
2 To Manage To manage (i.e., create,
Menu edit, and delete) the  - -
restaurant’s menu.
3 To Manage To update the food order’s
Food status or to cancel a food
  -
Order’s order.
Status
4 To Browse To show a list of the dishes
Menu or drinks offered by the   
restaurant.
5 To Order To get or cancel customers’
  
Food food orders.
6 To Track To track the status of food
Food orders.
  
Order’s
Status
7 To To summarize the food
Calculate orders and calculate the
the Food food cost and service fee
  
Cost and when customers have
Service Fee finished eating at the
restaurant.
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Figure 2 A Use Case Diagram for the System Prototype (E-Café)

Phase 2: System Design

To support a variety of customers’ mobile devices, the proposed web-based application,
called E-Café, was developed as a responsive web-based application. The responsive design
enables web contents to display properly on any screen size of the user’s mobile device. The
mock-up screens of E-Café were designed and created, as shown in Figure 3 - Figure 5.

Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 3 Home Page of the System Prototype (E-Café)

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Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 4 Mock-up Screens for Managing User Accounts and Menu

Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 5 Mock-up Screens for Menu Browsing

Phase 3: System Implementation

Based on the system design blueprints drawn up in the previous phase, the system
prototype was coded. Visual Studio Code, PHP, HTML, and Bootstrap Framework were used
in this phase. The system prototype was tested to confirm the correctness of system operations.
After debugging the identified errors, 3 system target users (i.e., one restaurant manager and 2
waitpersons) were invited to participate in the process of the User Acceptance Test (UAT) in
order to reconfirm the appropriateness and correctness of the system prototype. The users’
opinions on user interface and system operations were gathered and used as the guidelines for
final adjusting the system prototype.

Phase 4: System Prototype Evaluation

After system implementation, the restaurant operators (i.e., 2 restaurant managers and
8 waitpersons) from the supportive restaurant were demonstrated and trained how to work with
the system. Afterward, the trained users were invited to evaluate the system prototype through
the group interview. Additionally, based on a simple random basis, 32 customers were invited
to evaluate the system prototype. They were requested to give satisfaction scores in 3 aspects
(e.g., the appropriateness of user interface, the system efficiency and effectiveness, and the
overall satisfaction of self-preventive practices by using the system prototype) through the e-
questionnaire.
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Research Conceptual Framework

Based on the concept of Systems Development Life Cycle or SDLC, which divide the
software processes into phases (Dennis, Wixom, & Roth, 2021 : 5), the conceptual
framework of this research and development was illustrated in Figure 1.

Planning
Phase
Software Development
Maintenance Processes: A Web-based
Analysis
& Support
Phase Phase Application for
SDLC 1) System Analysis &
Supporting the
Requirements Specification
2) System Design Dine-in Services
3) System Implementation (E-Café)
Implementation Design 4) System Evaluation
Phase Phase

Figure 1 The Conceptual Framework

Results
1) The results of system development
The implemented system prototype is a responsive web-based application, which
consists of 7 main functions (i.e., To Manage User Account, To Manage Menu, To Manage Food
Order’s Status, To Browse Menu, To Order Food, To Track Food Order’s Status, and To Calculate the
Food Cost and Service Fee). Some of the system functions were shown in Figure 6 – Figure 9.

Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 6 Menu browsing

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Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 7 Food ordering and cancellation

Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 8 Food order tracking

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Desktop Version Mobile Version

Figure 9 Managing food order’s status (by restaurant operators)

2) The results of the system evaluation

After system demonstration and training, 2 restaurant managers and 8 waitpersons were
invited to evaluate the system prototype through the group interview. The validated interview
questions were used in this process. The interview results indicated that the system prototype
satisfied restaurant operators. It outperformed the restaurant operations and enabled the
restaurant operators in providing the dine-in services safely and effectively. The system
facilitated dine-in customers to have the services without the waitperson’s assistance, e.g.
checking the menu from the application, tracking the food order’s status, and calculating the
food cost and service fees before billing. Therefore, the system allowed waitpersons and
customers to avoid or reduce unnecessary contact. This can be concluded that the system
prototype satisfied the need of social distancing and helped reducing/avoiding personal contact.
It’s found that the customers provided positive feedback after using the digital menu, the food
ordering function, and the food order tracking function. Moreover, with the support of the
system, the waitpersons stated that they have more time to manage customer orders which
finally leads to providing the faster service, and increasing the dine-in customers’ satisfaction.
In addition, 32 customers, who received the dine-in services through the system prototype,
were invited to evaluate the system by giving system satisfaction scores in 3 aspects (e.g., the
appropriateness of user interface, the system efficiency and effectiveness, and the overall
satisfaction of self-preventive practices by using the system prototype) through the e-
questionnaires. The demographic statistics of the respondents and the system evaluation results
are shown in Table 2 and Table 3.
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Table 2 The demographic statistics of respondents

Frequency Percentage
Gender
Male 15 46.9
Female 17 53.1
Total 32 100.00
Age (by years)
20 or below 6 18.75
21 - 30 19 59.38
Above 30 7 21.88
Total 32 100.00
Degree of Education
Bachelor (or lower) 21 65.63
Master 8 25.00
Ph.D. 3 9.38
Total 32 100.00
Occupation
Student 10 31.3
Office Worker 15 46.9
Business Owner 4 12.5
Government Officer / State Enterprise Employee 3 9.4
Total 32 100.00

From Table 2, the demographic statistics of respondents indicated that the majority of
respondents were male (53.1%) and were between 21 to 30 years old (59.38%). Most of them
were the office workers (46.9%) and had a bachelor’s degree (65.63%).

Table 3 The customers’ satisfaction scores for the proposed system prototype

Questions Mean S.D. Level of Satisfaction

The appropriateness of the user interface
1. The appropriateness of screen layout 4.19 0.64 Very Satisfied
2. The appropriateness of font style and size 4.53 0.57 Extremely Satisfied
3. The appropriateness of color and image size 4.62 0.61 Extremely Satisfied
4. The clarity of system feedback and displayed
4.31 0.69 Very Satisfied
output
5. Ease of use – Intuitive User Interface 4.28 0.68 Very Satisfied
Average 4.39 0.64 Very Satisfied
The system efficiency and effectiveness
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Questions Mean S.D. Level of Satisfaction

6. The efficiency of product searching and output 4.47 0.51 Very Satisfied
representing
7. The effectiveness of product searching and output 4.69 0.47 Extremely Satisfied
representing
8. The effectiveness of food order tracking 4.47 0.72 Very Satisfied
9. The correctness of food and service fee calculation 4.81 0.40 Extremely Satisfied
10. The correctness of system operations when user 4.66 0.48 Extremely Satisfied
performs action through the system command buttons
Average 4.62 0.52 Extremely Satisfied
The overall satisfaction of self-preventive practices by using the system prototype
11. With the support of the system, the customer 4.34 .70 Very Satisfied
gained the flexible services without personal contact
12. With the support of the system, the customer 4.16 .68 Very Satisfied
restored the confidence in getting back to the full
dine-in restaurants.
13. With the support of the system, the dine-in 4.44 .56 Very Satisfied
customer can avoid or reduce the personal contact.
14. With the support of the system, the customer 4.12 .71 Very Satisfied
gained the appropriateness of social distancing.
15. In overall, the customer evaluated that the system 4.53 .51 Extremely Satisfied
is one of a useful tools for reducing or avoiding
unnecessary personal contact which helps curbing the
spread out of the virus.
16. In the future, the customer intends to use the 4.63 .49 Extremely Satisfied
system during dining in the restaurant.
Average 4.37 0.61 Very Satisfied
Total Average 4.45 0.59 Very Satisfied

As shown in Table 3, the average satisfaction score of (1) the appropriateness of the user
interface is 4.39 (S.D = 0.64), which means very satisfied. Meanwhile, the average satisfaction
score of (2) the system efficiency and effectiveness and (3) the overall satisfaction of self-
preventive practices by using the system prototype are 4.62 (S.D. = 0.52) and 4.37 (S.D. =
0.61), which means extremely satisfied and very satisfied respectively. Moreover, the total
average score of customers’ satisfaction is 4.45 (S.D. = 0.59), which means very satisfied. The
evaluation results from e-questionnaires indicated that the system prototype successfully
supported the operations of the dine-in restaurant. Additionally, the evaluation scores indicated
that the system prototype can be used as an effective and efficient tool for supporting the dine-
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in services and restoring the customers’ confidence in getting back to the full dine-in
restaurants.

Discussion
Based on the software development processes (i.e., system analysis & specification,
system design, system implementation, and system evaluation), the prototype of a responsive
web-based application used for supporting the dine-in services in a restaurant was developed.
The system consists of 7 functions, which are 1) To Manage User Account 2) To Manage Menu
3) To Manage Food Order’s Status 4) To Browse Menu 5) To Order Food 6) To Track Food Order’s
Status and 7) To Calculate the Food Cost and Service Fee. These functions enabled the dine-in
restaurant operators to provide safe, efficient, and effective services to the dine-in customers.
According to previous research (Kurniawan, Sutawan, & Amalia, 2020 : 32-40; Maingi &
Obonyo, 2022 : 1-23; Wang, 2012 : 9), the restaurant operators stated that the dine-in customers
provided positive feedback to the system used for supporting the dine-in service; especially the
function of the digital menu and food ordering. It can be concluded that the linkage between
the digital menu and the food ordering function allowed customers to seek out the required
dishes through mobile devices and, then, place their orders immediately and accurately without
waitpersons’ assistance. This process fulfills the requirements of customers in
avoiding/reducing personal contact and keeping social distancing during the spread out of
COVID-19 (Jeong, Kim, Ma, & DiPietro, 2022 : 836-858). And, public awareness of social
distancing, avoiding/reducing personal contact, and self-cleanliness still remain, though the
situation of COVID-19 pandemic is recovering. Therefore, by reopening the dine-in restaurant
after the COVID-19 pandemic, the dine-in restaurant operators can use the proposed system as
a strategic tool for restoring the customers’ confidence in getting back to the dine-in services.
Similar to the previous research findings (Intal, Payas, Fernandez, & Domingo, 2020 : 1054-
1059 ; Kurniawan, Sutawan, & Amalia, 2020 : 32-40), the digital dine-in services allowed
customers to have some services without waitpersons’ assistance, e.g. tracking of food order’s
status. Then, the waitpersons were released to have more time for dealing with customers’
orders and the back-end services. Therefore, the service quality and the serving promptness of
waitperson are increased. This, finally, leads to an increase of customer satisfaction.
Although the COVID-19, which has been a global threat, has changed from pandemic to
endemic, seeking out the solutions to cope with it or to adapt to live with it is a challenge for
the mankind to make a complete and safe transition from the new normal to the next normal.

Recommendations
1) Based on the research framework, a responsive web-based application, which is
called E-Café, was developed. In order to support the dine-in services and to avoid or reduce
the personal contact between the waitperson and the customer, the implemented system
consists of 7 functions, which are 1) To Manage User Account 2) To Manage Menu 3) To Manage
Food Order’s Status 4) To Browse Menu 5) To Order Food 6) To Track Food Order’s Status and 7)
To Calculate the Food Cost and Service Fee. The evaluation results indicated that the implemented
system outperformed the operations in a dine-in restaurant. It, moreover, can be used as a
strategic tool for restoring the customers’ confidence in getting back to the dine-in services.
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2) To completely fulfill the restaurant operations related to dine-in services, a few functions,
as follows, are suggested for the further study and development.
- Online Billing (or e-Payment):
The customers are allowed to make online payment by themselves after finishing
up the meal. This function enables customers and waitpersons to avoid personal contact.
- Online Reservation:
The customers are allowed to reserve a table at the restaurant or to ask for a table reservation
from the restaurant operators. This function enables restaurant operators to manage the traffic
at restaurant effectively.

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