Review : Book Your Table App

Name of App : Bookyourtable
Category : Food & Dining

About the app :
Bookyourtable was launched to deliver the convenience of online reservations, food ordering and Discount deals for all guests. Bookyourtable today operates in top 10 cities of India & has plans to expand to other cities in India very soon. It is also a perfect search destination if you are hoping to get some fabulous discounts to explore the culinary world in India.

Bookyourtable,  provides you a simple way to find tables that meet your desired criteria for cuisine, locality & price.  Through Bookyourtable you can view Restaurant details like address, cost for two,offers, restaurant timings etc. You can download coupons and vouchers.

You have this app in book your table website , you can download the app from Windows 8 App Store.

I am writing this review for the windows 8 app store app.

On Installing ;creates a wide tile on the start screen.

Splash Screen : Its is one of the applications where I have seen a metallic splash screen.

Capabilities : a. Internet connectivity and Geo Location.

Design Style : Uses Flat navigational m
Home Page :
Pros : 1. Tiles  are arranged properly , neat and informative.
2. Cannot click on a tile , which has no information.
3. When not signed in I am welcomed as Guest , but if I sign-in , close and open the app again I am not welcomed. :(

Flyouts : Uses a basic flyout .

When I click New User:Registration Form pop-ups .
Let us try to evaluate the registration module:
Pros:
1. Very simple and elegant.

2. Errors are notified in red like :

3. The UI navigations and tabbing that registers a user is good.

Cons:
1. Although this is a clean way to do , but all my errors are not notified to me at a single go , I would have appreciated if it had given me something like :

 2.  after signing-up the app doesn't clear already entered values. :(  That is a negative point from the app developers.

3. I need to login manually even after I have registered successfully and the session hasn't died. :(
I did not like this feature.

4. You get no notification mails even after after registering.

5. Mobile number is the primary key for registration , but for signing-in you need to remember username.

6. There is no forget password / reset password feature available.

7. I cannot sign out of my app without closing the app itself.

Now lets see My Profile:

 Pro :
1.  Simple and Straight Forward .
2. Shows User data and Bookings.

Cons:
1. There is a remove button , which should ideally remove the old bookings from the screen. It should be placed along with the booking info , on the div/ grid column itself , but it placed in the app-bar and most of the time it is of no particular use.

2. The Scroll bar and flip slider button should be invisible when no data is present.

Now , lets go to Featured Restaurants module:

Pros:

1. Select buttons are placed very nicely , neatly and can be accessed with ease.

2. Book Now feature is neat and easy to use. 

3. You can write and post reviews easily.

4. You can mark favorite easily.

Cons:

1. Although Home page shows 12 options , I see only 11 options in my Featured Resturants Page.

2. Featured Restaurants don't change when I change the location , put I show reload the page every time I change the location.

3. Not sure the distance is calculated, with reference to What? If it is calculated with respect to longitude and latitude then also the distances shown here don't match the actuals.

4. For the slots which are past. I am able to click on book now but am shown with wrong error

I am said to select a time slot when there is no where I can select a time slot.

5. The error messages are shown in white instead of read. :(

6. Even when the time has not passed  , I am not allowed to book any slots ( reason no more seats are available.) but I am shown with error message.

7. Session is not persisted between pages. If I plan to go back to previous page from Book now page to change the number of people/date the whole UI is reset back .

8.  Although I can take favorite , I cannot remove it. Marking the favorite doesn't reflect back on my profile immediately.

9. Post review does not validate if you have added any thing in the text box/marked the stars or not.

For all other modules( Dine Out and Buffet) , the above points remain valid .

Let us look on to the Coupons  module  now:

Pros: 

1. Simple and straight forwards , the ways coupons is handled is great.

2. You get all the relevant features in a single go.

Cons:

1. Share Source is not implemented I guess

2. Although I am logged-in and my information is there with the app , still them I am forced to enter the mobile number to send coupon.

Agreed I may want to send the coupon to someone else but we can always give it pre-filled , editable text box.

Final verdict

The app is good usable , fast and efficient.Although there are certain things that needs to be removed .
Many features from the website of BookYourTable is missing. Some of them like testimonials etc are missing.
But it can go a long way in future if properly taken care.