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Design comes last: The key to unlocking highly successful hospitality venues.

From Insight to Impact: Translating Behavioural Design into Tangible Hospitality Success.

People dining in a stylish restaurant. Text: "Design Comes Last: The Key to Unlocking Highly Successful Hospitality Venues." Cozy ambiance.
 

In the highly competitive world of hospitality, success hinges not only on the quality of food and service but also on the ability to craft environments that resonate with human emotions and behaviours. Modern hospitality design has evolved far beyond aesthetic appeal, embracing the principles of neuroscience and environmental psychology to create spaces that intuitively cater to guests' needs.


This innovative approach, often referred to as "envirohacking," combines data-driven insights, predictive behavioural patterns, and intentional design to shape spaces that are not only visually captivating but also emotionally engaging. By designing for behaviour, restaurateurs and hospitality owners can unlock the potential to enhance guest experiences, optimise staff efficiency, and increase profitability—all while creating memorable spaces that people are drawn to time and time again.


In the increasingly competitive world of dining, successful hospitality designers have moved beyond the traditional aesthetic narrative. They prioritise and embrace the principles of neuro-aesthetics, a scientific approach aimed at understanding predictive human behaviour and the environmental triggers that influence how people interact within the built environment. When applied intelligently, this approach can create highly enjoyable experiences for guests while delivering outsized returns for restaurateurs.


We refer to this methodology as enviro-hacking, an approach that combines neuroscience, environmental psychology, and sound design principles to maximise human potential. This strategy can be equally applied to a variety of settings, including homes, offices, schools, hospitals, hotels, and public spaces. It focuses on using design as a tool to optimise our surroundings to enhance human well-being and performance.


Principles Underpinning Enviro-Hacking:

Data-Driven Design: Relies on research and data to understand how the environment impacts human behaviour and well-being.


Intentional Design: Manipulates elements like lighting, acoustics, texture, furniture, sightlines, layout, and greenery to achieve specific outcomes.


Focus on Well-being: Creates spaces that promote health, joy, productivity, and quality of life.


Approaches to Understanding Human Behaviour:

At its core, enviro-hacking relies on three key approaches:


  1. Observation: Restaurant Designers meticulously observe how people move, interact, and make choices within establishments. This includes traffic flow, seating preferences, and guest engagement.


  2. Neuro-Aesthetic Findings: This field bridges the gap between subjective aesthetic experiences and objective scientific findings, showing how spatial design affects emotions and behaviour.


  3. Predictive Patterns: Analysing data allows designers to anticipate guest behaviour, guiding decisions about layout, circulation, and the placement of key elements like bars, seating, and service stations.


This data can be applied with almost laser precision to subtly manipulate the environment to encourage or trigger certain desired behaviours in both patrons and staff. Below we have compiled some key areas that can be manipulated very effectively towards certain desired behaviours.


Applications of Enviro-Hacking in Hospitality:

Below are some key areas where design can be optimised to encourage desired behaviours:


Natural Light: Maximizing natural light can create a more inviting and emotionally comfortable and relaxing environment that will increase overall dwell time as well as spend. 


Artificial Light: Studies have shown that low or dim light on the tables interfere with our ability to judge how much we eat. Subjects have also reported being less self-conscious thereby increasing overall comfort and spend. Lastly warm artificial light (2700K) also makes people appear healthier and more attractive thereby further driving a sense of joy and relaxation ultimately further driving spend. Depending on the setting certain lighting colours will also encourage patrons to spend more. 


Sound Design: Background music can influence the pace of dining and create a desired ambiance. For example, studies have shown that popular music played at 88 decibels in bars can increase the frequency of drink orders and increase spend. Combining this with considered acoustics will reduce noise levels, increase the quality of the sound as well as the ability for guests to converse comfortably and easily, thereby lifting the overall level of experience, driving sales.


Social cues: The considered arrangement of seating can encourage social connection and interaction. Various seating typologies will also cater for various personality types and moods. Most importantly a mindful application of seating arrangements in line with hard wired behavioural biases will increase the feelings of comfort, safety and joy. Examples include bench seats around the perimeter against a wall or central benches with high backing.


Seating Patterns Our work within the area of hospitality design over the last 25 years and our studies and observations within this space has revealed some remarkable consistencies in how people behave within specifically western or western influenced cultures when it comes to seating, spacing and arrangements. To this end, we have observed 8 predictive behavioural preferences and distilled them into these 8 seating principles referred to as “huddling, perching, framing” etc. See more here and here. 


Proportion: Known also as the Golden mean, Golden Ratio or Devine Proportion, the mathematical proportional number of 1:1.618, is often called the most beautiful number in the universe. Known as by various names like The Golden Mean, When applied correctly it results in a geometry or proportion that we tend to find the most comfortable, the most beautiful and the most pleasing to the human eye. 


Chair Type: A restaurant chair is perhaps one of the most important ways by which we judge a restaurant. Its design, its finish and its weight. In fact the weight and texture of the chair in most cases informs the length of the stay. The lighter the chair, the shorter we stay. Think about a fast food restaurant. The chair is most probably very light, made from polypropylene or aluminium versus a fine dining chair that would normally be much heavier and perhaps upholstered in a comfortable soft fabric or leather inviting you to linger longer.


Anchoring Bias: Anchoring works because our emotions are more powerful than our reason. Similarly when restaurants serve bigger portions than we need to eat, it favours the anchoring bias as it alters our perception of value. This anchoring bias also exists in how a restaurant looks and feels. If it looks cheap, we expect the food to be cheaper. Conversely if it looks a bit more exclusive and well appointed, a price point slightly lower than what we expected judging by our 1st anchor, the aesthetics of the restaurant, will give us a greater sense of value and will thus help to increase the frequency of visits, leading to increased sales.


Eight core human needs: According to psychologist Chloé Madanes our behaviour is motivated by the fulfilment of 6 essential human needs. These needs dictate our behaviour in a social context, and it is thus of particular value in the restaurant space. Restaurateurs that understand and apply this knowledge in their engagement with their guests as well as their staff can have a dramatic impact on how people feel about the restaurant in all the ways that truly matter. These six human needs include Certainty, Uncertainty , Significance, Connection, Growth and Contribution.


Menu Engineering: Strategic placement: High-profit items are strategically positioned on the menu at the beginning of sections or highlighted in frames or different font type.  Descriptive language: Vivid descriptions can make dishes more appealing and increase their perceived value.  Price indenting: Positioning the price of items directly next to the item description, will increase a focus on the products and not the price. Visual cues: Images of dishes can influence choices and entice customers to order more. 


Storytelling: A hospitality venue - whether it be a hotel, restaurant or bar - that can therefore tell a great story whether that story is fictional or real and externally expressed or not, disproportionately elevates its probability of success. This is true for many reasons. Apart from the marketing advantages, it is the story that binds the concept and people together. It becomes the north star for all the creative contributors and informs the location, the art, the interior design, uniforms, menu, details, the build and even the profile of the staff.


Benefits of Designing for Behaviour:

Enhanced Guest Experience: Intuitive layouts and comfortable settings in line with well considered hardwired environmental triggers, create a more enjoyable dining experience for guests. 


Increased Revenue: Enhanced guest experiences, subtle nudging and strategic menu engineering can boost sales and average order value. 


Improved Staff Efficiency:  Optimized workflows, clear lines of site, happy guests and well-designed service stations can improve staff productivity and reduce stress. 


Sustainable Practices: Healthy for people: Prioritising human well-being, by sustainably focusing on long-term health for both humans and the planet. Optimizing space usage and encouraging resource-conscious behaviours. Incorporating natural elements (to which humans respond more favourably) and minimising the ecological footprint of the design.


By shifting the focus from subjective aesthetic preferences to a science-backed understanding of human behaviour, hospitality design can transcend traditional boundaries. Incorporating behavioural science and neuro-aesthetic principles allows designers to create spaces that are not only visually appealing but also emotionally engaging, physically comfortable, and highly profitable.


Prioritising human needs and leveraging environmental triggers, these thoughtfully designed spaces foster emotional connections, enhance guest satisfaction, and deliver exceptional returns on investment. In today’s competitive industry, great design is no longer just about beauty, it’s about crafting meaningful, memorable experiences that leave a lasting impression.


 

Information Reference Index:

How Interior Design Impacts Behaviour.

The Science of Neuroarchitecture.

The Power of Design: Creating Meaningful Experiences.

The Influence of Restaurant Design on Guest Behaviour.

Designing for Emotional Connection.


 

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