The Challenge Café Kowloon, a traditional Chinese restaurant with a 25-year legacy in Mexico City, wanted to modernize its experience without losing its essence: the ritual of sharing. The challenge was to integrate technology at the table in a way that didn't isolate diners (the "smartphone effect"), but instead fostered collective interaction and streamlined the ordering process.
Role: Co-Founder & Lead Experience Designer (at Appio).
Scope: Industrial Design, UX/UI Design, Hardware Integration, Prototyping.
Outcome: Two fully functional multi-touch systems that have remained operational for over a decade.
Inspired by the Chinese tradition of sharing dishes in the center of the table, we developed the Long Biao® (Dragon Table). We brought the menu to the physical surface of the table to transform "ordering food" into a collaborative ceremony.
1. Phygital Design (Physical + Digital): I led the industrial design of the 72" furniture, ensuring it could withstand the high-traffic environment of a busy restaurant.
Materials: Steel structure, wood and polyurethane finish, and a custom-integrated tempered glass screen for multi-touch interaction.
Hardware: Custom-built hardware designed to recognize gestures and provide immediate feedback to multiple simultaneous users.
2. Inclusive Software Ecosystem: The interface was designed to be "hierarchy-free," allowing everyone from children to seniors to participate.
Interactive Menu: A visual, tactile menu that allows diners to explore dishes together before ordering.
Co-Creation Games: Features like "Beast Factory," where players collaborate to build mythological creatures, echoing the symbolic nature of the Chinese dragon.
Contextual Value: Included a "Coyoacán Gallery" that turned the waiting time into a cultural discovery moment, suggesting nearby landmarks for post-dinner visits.
Born from an interdisciplinary collaboration with Stanford University (ME310), the project followed a rigorous user-centered design cycle:
Iterative Prototyping: Developed multiple low and high-fidelity prototypes of both the furniture and the touch-interface.
Service Integration: Coordinated with restaurant staff to ensure the digital ordering system aligned with their operational flow.
Long-term Sustainability: The systems were designed for durability, requiring minimal maintenance while maintaining high performance in public spaces.
THE TABLE
UI DETAIL
Longevity: A decade after installation, the systems continue to serve diners, proving the robustness of the original industrial and technological design.
Innovation Benchmark: Positioned Café Kowloon as a pioneer in the "Phygital" dining space in Mexico, blending traditional hospitality with cutting-edge interaction.
"This project is a testament to my multidisciplinary roots. It demonstrates that I am comfortable managing the complexity of physical manufacturing alongside digital interface design. It proves that I can design for 'intangible' experiences (conversation, joy, sharing) by mastering 'tangible' constraints (hardware, durability, ergonomics)."
THE PROTOTYPING
THE CONCEPTUALIZATION