Tickets for Restaurants
For one thing, it's pretty amazing to see Nick Kokonas writing about Alinea and Next as if they were "Lean Startups".<p>But another thing that sticks out to me: look how pretty and refined these ticketing apps <i>aren't</i>, even though they drive hundreds of thousands of dollars <i>per month</i> of revenue. And after you notice that, read how Kokonas talks about how easy and simple the system is for them to use? There's a lesson in there somewhere about the kinds of UX that matter to customers versus the kind of UX people believe should matter for customers.<p>As a restaurant customer, I think the ticketing system is great; I've gone through the process of getting an Alinea reso (if you want a real fun time in Chicago, try getting one for Schwa) and it was an opaque nightmare. The alternative to tickets for these places isn't a fair reservation system; it is basically "you don't get to eat there ever".