KOTORI — Festival Mobile Order

A web-based mobile ordering system that helps festival visitors order and pay in advance and skip long queues at booths.

No app download

Instant browser access via QR code

Cashless and secure

A familiar, low-friction checkout

Next plan

Multi-language support

English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia

● TL;DR

A faster festival experience, proven live

1,100+

transactions,

Phase 1 → 2

2 → 23

booths across live deployments

Validated

less congestion at scale

¥1.6M+

sales at Vietnam Festival Tokyo 2026

*Data retrieved from KOTORI Phase 1 and Phase 2 user testing sprints.

MY ROLE

End-to-end product design for live festival operations

UX/UI Designer

Product Strategy

Event Execution

View Live Web App

View Official Website

View User Test Results

Explore Design Process

See Details for Tenant Page

01 — PROBLEM STATEMENT

Background

Why we should start KOTORI?

CONTEXT

KOTORI began from an opportunity we discovered through Smiles Mobile Remittance. As Smiles grew and became a major sponsor of multicultural festivals across Japan, our team worked closely with event organizers and observed the festival experience firsthand.

Large crowds created long food queues, forcing visitors to spend too much time waiting instead of enjoying the festival. Vendors had limited time and capacity to serve large crowds through traditional physical queues.

First Problem

How might we make festival food ordering faster without adding complexity for visitors or Stores?

CONTEXT

Popular festival booths can develop long queues during peak hours. Visitors may spend significant time waiting for food instead of exploring the event. At the same time, vendors already operate in a high-pressure environment and cannot manage a complicated additional ordering system.

Issues list

Festival Visitors

QR discoverability — Users may not notice where or how to access KOTORI in the venue.

Pickup lane confusion — KOTORI pickup and regular queues may not be clearly separated.
Crowded environment — Users may be walking, carrying items, or using the app one-handed.
Booth identification — Digital store names may not clearly match the physical booth.
Limited attention — Users need to understand the flow quickly without reading too much.
Multi-order confusion — Users ordering from multiple stores may struggle to identify which order is ready.
Missed notifications — “Ready” notifications can be overlooked in a busy and noisy festival.
Menu availability mismatch — Physical booth menus and KOTORI menus may not always match, especially for drinks.
Unclear waiting time — Users may not know how long their order will take to prepare.
Trust & adoption — First-time users may hesitate to use an unfamiliar ordering service.
Slow connectivity — Crowded venues can have unstable internet, creating slow loading or blank web-app screens that may cause users to abandon the flow.
Payment accessibility — Credit-card-only checkout may create friction for some international festival visitors who prefer other payment methods.
SmilesPay opportunity — Since KOTORI reaches multicultural festival audiences already connected to the Smiles ecosystem, SmilesPay integration could provide a more familiar payment option and support adoption among existing Smiles users.

Explore Design Process

Festival Tenant/Store

Multi-channel orders — Manage walk-in + digital orders simultaneously

Fast order processing — Identify and process orders quickly
Limited setup time — Configure and learn the system with minimal training
Missed orders — Incoming orders can be overlooked during peak hours
Status management — Quickly update Preparing → Ready → Received
Real-time availability — Mark sold-out items immediately
Network reliability — Operate under unstable event connectivity
Menu management — Easily create and update menus
Staff coordination — Manage multiple roles and clarify order responsibilities
Pickup separation — Distinguish regular queues from KOTORI pickup
Signage consistency — Maintain clear QR codes and pickup signage
Minimal attention — Operate KOTORI while preparing and serving food

See Details for Tenant Page

Product Roadmap

A roadmap for the next stage of KOTORI

Initiative

Competitor Research

UNDERSTANDING THE USERS

Designing for two sides of the festival

Festival Visitors

Want to enjoy the event without wasting time in line.

First-time Users

Prefer a simple, intuitive ordering experience from the first tap.

Food Vendors

Want to serve more customers efficiently with limited staff.

KEY INSIGHT

Visitors want a fast and easy way to order, while vendors want to increase sales without increasing workload.

Interview

Interviews with our multicultural team members in Digital Wallet Corporation Office, who also take part in festivals from their home countries here in Japan.

Participants

2 Japanese, 2 Indonesians,

2 Philippines, 2 Vietnamese.

Nationalities

100%

Would use service

Participant demograhic

User research findings

Feature importance ranking

USER JOURNEY

From queuing to collecting

BEFORE · TRADITIONAL ORDERING

Go to booth → See long queue → Wait 20–60 minutes → Order & pay → Receive food

AFTER · WITH KOTORI

Scan QR → Order & pay instantly → Receive order number → Pick up at booth → No waiting

Customer User Flow

Scan QR Code

Find participating vendor

Discover

Find participating vendor

Browse

Choose food

Order

Cart, verification + payment

Wait

Continue enjoying festival

Navigate

Find booth

Pick Up

Use dedicated KOTORI lane

Tenant User Flow

See Details for Tenant Page

Design Process

The design process differed from a typical product design workflow. Due to the tight release timeline, we began with focused discussions with the Product Managers to align on branding, user flows, wireframes, and the overall product direction. After establishing the key requirements, we moved directly into high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) design to accelerate development and meet the release deadline.

Assets

Promotion

On site Design needs

UX UI Design

Designer & PM page - Direct HI-FI Design

KOTORI design progress start directly with the userflow system and directly design the high fidelity design.

Handover

Engineer Page - UI

Three example for UI flow from customer page

Engineer Page - User flow

One example of the User flow explanation for Engineer

Engineer Page - Error message

One example of the User flow which containing error message explanation for Engineer

Engineer Page - Request and UX Adjustment [Teams]

UI Design

UI screen results

The customer journey is shown across five essential moments — from secure access to order completion and account preferences.

On-site UX for QR discoverability and Pick Up Lane Confusion

Problem

Solution

Flow

Home screen

Problem

Solution

Flow

Select menu → Review order → Log in → Choose language → Enter email → Enter verification code → Accept Terms & Conditions → Continue checkout

Order

Problem

Customers want a fast, direct ordering experience.
System side- Orders are limited to one store at a time. Users must complete payment before ordering from another store.

Solution

Show queue status and estimated wait time to set expectations.
Add menu categories for faster browsing.
View multiple menus at once for faster browsing.
Add a direct “Add” button for quicker ordering.
Keep orders limited to one store per transaction based on system constraints.
Ask users to log in only after completing their order selection to save their details.

Flow

Select Store → Check Queue → Browse Category → Add Items → Review Order → Log In → Continue to Checkout

Browsing - Easy to find stores and menu flow

Problem

Solution

Flow

Oversee multiple store orders, including preparing, ready, and cancelled statuses.

Problem

Solution

Flow

Login — Guest-like Login (with Email Save)

Problem

Users struggled with account registration, PIN verification, and were reluctant to input personal or payment information.

Solution

Introduced guest checkout (no registration required)

Simplified verification flow (reduced dependency on email PIN)
Minimized required inputs to enable faster ordering

Flow

Select menu → Review order → Log in → Choose language → Enter email → Enter verification code → Accept Terms & Conditions → Continue checkout

Payment/Checkout flows

Problem

Solution

Flow

Settings

Problem

Solution

Flow

No Connection situation

Problem

Solution

Flow

Payment - Improve trust and strengthen security in the payment process.

Problem

Solution

Flow

PHASE 1 — USER SPRINT TEST

Live validation at Vietnam Festival Osaka 2026

We conducted a live user sprint test in a real event environment to validate usability, user behavior, and business performance under festival conditions.

320

users in 2 days
131 → 189 growth

¥70,750

total sales
73 transactions

~¥951

average order value

77%

iOS usage
Safari-first priority

User Origin

Majority: Japan
Minor: USA (1), Vietnam (1)

Browser Usage

Safari: 209 users (~65%)
Chrome: 109 users (~34%)
Firefox: 2 · Unknown: 2

Insight: Safari is the primary environment—critical for UX stability.

Behavior Insights

Day 1 → Day 2 grew from 131 to 189 users, indicating organic adoption during the event. Some users ordered from multiple stores, showing repeat usage and high engagement.

Payment Behavior

Payment data was unavailable in the current dataset. Feedback showed reluctance to register credit cards and a preference for simpler, lower-friction payment methods.

Peak Usage / Crowded Time

Exact hourly traffic was unavailable, but network issues appeared after ~3 PM. Qualitative feedback indicated high afternoon congestion and the need for peak-load resilience.

Key Insights

Registration is the biggest conversion barrier. Safari-first optimization is critical. Peak-time reliability is essential. Digital and physical experiences must be tightly connected. Simplicity beats features in real-world environments.

PHASE 2 — PRODUCT VALIDATION AT SCALE

Product validation at scale

Following Phase 1 improvements, KOTORI was deployed at Vietnam Festival Tokyo 2026 to validate scalability, usability, and business impact across a larger live-event environment.

KEY RESULTS

¥1.61M+

total sales

1,118

transactions

1,867

items sold

active booths

~¥1,446

average order value

2 → 23

booths from Phase 1

PROBLEMS OBSERVED

Order status friction — Staff sometimes missed orders or left them in “Preparing,” requiring customers to approach the booth.

Pickup inconsistency — Dedicated KOTORI lanes and signage were not standardized across booths.

Low discoverability — QR placement and KOTORI branding varied between stores.

Multi-order confusion — Similar order cards and unclear “Preparing” vs “Ready” states made tracking multiple orders difficult.

Network & menu limitations — Unstable connectivity disrupted ordering, while incomplete drink menus limited food + drink purchases.

KEY INSIGHTS

Visibility drives adoption, while clear order status and standardized booth operations are critical when scaling.

Phase 2 also showed that KOTORI’s UX extends beyond the screen — the QR signage, pickup lane, vendor workflow, and network environment are all part of the customer experience.

NEXT ITERATION

• Simplify Preparing → Ready → Received status management
• Strengthen visual differences between order statuses
• Standardize QR + pickup signage across booths
• Improve multi-store order tracking
• Optimize for unstable network conditions
• Simplify vendor menu setup with reusable presets

BANNER ADVERTISING PERFORMANCE — PARTICIPATING STORES

4,218

banner ad impressions

1,731

active users via ads

¥186,150

sales from advertising stores

DIRECT PURCHASE IMPACT

Participating stores ranked 3rd overall, demonstrating a direct purchase impact from banner ad exposure.

OUTCOME

Phase 2 validated KOTORI at scale, growing from 2 → 23 booths and generating ¥1.6M+ in sales, while uncovering operational UX challenges that informed the next product iteration.

Partner Festivals