notes from building a floor plan editor

going in, i thought the hard part of resvo would be the real-time sync, keeping table availability correct across every device on the floor. that was hard. it just wasn't the thing that surprised me.

what surprised me was how much the staff override the system. the hostess knows table 12 wobbles and won't seat anyone there. waiters move parties around without telling anyone. if the software argues with the staff, the staff wins, every time.

a few things we changed because of that:

the editor now draws the room as it actually is, weird corner included. when the screen matches the room, new staff barely need training on it.

almost every action got an undo. reservations move, parties shrink, someone shows up with three extra people. we spent a while writing clever validation before accepting that a fast undo covers more cases than any of it.

most of the job turned out to be figuring out where the software should stay out of the way.