Case 03Hospitality · Spice Garden
Reimagining special occasions through ambience control
A concept dining platform where families set the lighting, music and décor of a celebration before they arrive.
- Context
- Studio concept
- Role
- Lead UX design
- Platform
- Web and mobile
- Timeline
- 1 month
Sat 14 June · 7:00 pm · 6 guests
Aisha's 9th birthday
Lighting
Fairytale playlist
Music · soft, 30%
Concept interface, built in code by us.
Outcome
Outcome
- Celebration planning that takes one flow instead of several suppliers
- Customisation that feels quick and intuitive
- Value on both sides: easier for guests, more structured for restaurants
Overview
What we were working with.
Spice Garden is a concept for planning special occasions through personalised restaurant ambience. Guests choose lighting, music, décor and theme, then book, all in one connected experience.
The problem
Planning a meaningful celebration means juggling venues, decorators, set-up and extra cost, which makes it stressful and slow. Restaurants struggle too: personalisation is limited and manual set-up takes staff time.
Who we designed for
Priya and Arjun, working parents
“We want a memorable celebration for our daughter without spending days coordinating venues, décor and set-up.”
Goals
- Save time planning celebrations.
- Shape the dining ambience around the occasion.
- Arrive to a ready-made celebration with no set-up stress.
Pain points
- Event planning feels slow and fragmented.
- Coordinating decorators adds cost and effort.
- Restaurant experiences lack personalisation.
ScenarioPriya and Arjun are planning their daughter's ninth birthday and want a princess theme without managing decorators separately. In one flow they find a restaurant, choose the occasion, set the ambience and confirm the booking.
Process
How we got there.
- 01
Concept framing
- Defined the concept around stress-free celebration planning.
- Focused the experience on discovery, personalisation and booking.
- Set it up as an experiment in AI-assisted product design.
- 02
Persona and journey
- Built the concept around Priya and Arjun as the primary lens.
- Mapped their journey from discovery to ambience choice and booking.
- Used that flow to shape the product structure, screen by screen.
- 03
AI-led exploration
- Used AI tools to explore many layout and interaction directions quickly.
- Tested structures for the landing page, dashboard and controls.
- Compared ways to balance quick actions with deeper customisation.
- 04
Final interface
- Combined the strongest directions into one connected experience.
- Organised the product into landing, dashboard and ambience controls.
- Focused the result on clarity, personalisation and storytelling.
Design decisions
The calls that shaped it.
Mood over menus
We organised the information architecture around the mood of the evening rather than restaurant functions, so choosing ambience feels like part of the experience, not an extra step.
Presets and fine control
Quick mood presets sit alongside manual controls, so first-time guests can decide fast and regulars can fine-tune.
AI for speed, people for judgement
Figma Make, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gamma and Supabase did the heavy lifting on exploration and build, while the UX decisions stayed with us.
What we learned
What we carry into every project.
One strong hook holds a product together
Customisable ambience gave the concept a clear differentiator and a storytelling backbone, even with a heavily AI-assisted workflow.
AI amplifies, it does not replace
The tools sped up iteration and storytelling; the thinking about users and flows still did the work.
Serve both sides
Designing for guests and restaurants at once turned a booking tool into a service.
Let's build it.
Tell us what you are making. We reply to every enquiry within one working day, and you will hear from the people who would actually do the work.
London, United Kingdom · Working worldwide