When we asked 1,015 UX professionals for their career advice and experience, one respondent claimed to have learned everything about UX from playing Dungeons and Dragons. Although such experience is sure to be good, I think you can learn even more about UX from waiting tables in a restaurant. You probably won't learn literally everything you need to know, but many lessons do transfer.

User Interface and Interaction Design

Atmosphere and presentation can make or break the experience. Place settings are what distinguish fine dining from roadside diner. Aesthetics affect enjoyment and the perception of value and quality. Neatness counts. Line things up. Provide the right tools for each job. Surround the experience with fine materials and a lovely flower. Decorate and arrange, don’t dump and clump.

Pictures sell. Photos of food and other products help create desire, answer common questions, and set expectations for a high-quality experience. Photos can also overcome language barriers and help people locate what they want quickly. Prioritize rather than showing huge photos of everything. Recognition is better than recall, and images are easier to recognize than words.

Focus on what you do best, and limit choices to make deciding easier. There’s a balance to be found between offering wide variety and specializing in a few main dishes. Specializing and limiting choices make it easier for people to choose what they want and easier for businesses to build appreciative clientele around their offerings. A great pizza joint has no reason to be a soup specialist too.

Don't rush people who want to take their time, and don’t slow down those who are in a hurry. Match the pace that’s most comfortable for people. Want people to build profiles? Give them as long as it takes. Don't make them do it all on day one.

Set expectations correctly for timing. Messy, incomplete, late, or erroneous deliveries hurt credibility and trust. When users ask for something that takes extra time to prepare, just tell them that, so they can either change their selection when time is of the essence or settle into relaxed anticipation. Offer a snack or a beverage and let them know things are still on track.

Anticipate customer needs whenever possible. Providing something before people realize they need it delights them. That's where the biggest gains can come from.

Process and task efficiency make or break both profitability and customer satisfaction. Time spent streamlining pays off right away. Continually improve to save steps and simplify interaction with the infrastructure.

Systems that hand off the customer to various servers during a meal tend to cause communication gaps and frustration. Assign responsibility clearly so that issues can be resolved quickly and satisfactorily.

What would you like for dessert? Make suggestions that increase customer enjoyment as well as sales. Would you like batteries with that? Of course you would. People who bought this also bought a container to put it in. Here are some in the right size. Use successful selling strategies.

Tune your language and interaction style to your customer. Practice improvisational conversation skills, so you can talk to anyone and respond appropriately for their style and needs.

The customer owns the space. If you violate that sense of ownership, it will be interruptive at best and a deep violation of trust at worst. Don’t remove or add things unexpectedly. Don't interrupt people — whether diners or users — for housekeeping tasks, especially not system-focused housekeeping.

Everyone loves a clean table, but don’t take away silverware or plates until the food is finished. Reduce clutter as much as possible without hiding needed tools or disrupting work in progress.

Error Handling

Customer service is evaluated by how you deal with problems. Angry customers who feel wronged or unheard are the worst kind of advertisement possible, because they tell everyone else, forever. On the other hand, a customer who gets effective help in a crisis often provides the best endorsements.

Keeping the customer is more important than making money on any one transaction. When things go wrong, apologize. Even if it isn't your fault, be sorry that something bad happened. Admit that an error occurred that should not have, commit to helping fix the problem, and follow through.

Have policies, but bend them sometimes in order to keep customers happy. No one likes to be surprised by some rigid rule that prevents them from getting what they need (or forces them to accept something they don’t want). Explain the policy, but meet customer needs within reason. Mashed potatoes instead of fries? Hold the special sauce? Not a problem. Don’t be that place with the no-free-water policy that won’t let a person in distress use the restroom. Be the hero of their story instead.

New-User Onboarding

Don’t judge a person by their first impression. Don't be quick to assume anything based on customer appearance or demographics, because assumptions offend, and people tend not to be WYSIWYG. Hungry people are often irritable, but when satisfied, they can transform into your happiest customers. People who are used to bad service may arrive with low expectations, but they can be won over easily with good treatment and care.

Orient new customers by recommending top sellers. Set the options most people enjoy as the defaults.

Translate menus and descriptions as needed, by using the customers’ vocabulary instead of brand names, foreign words, and insider jargon. No one wants to feel ignorant, and many people are embarrassed when they have to ask questions. People avoid clicking on unknown items and often just ignore what they don't understand. Avoid bad naming. When you must, use workarounds for bad navigation labels.

Explain terms that may be new to your users without any hint of condescension. When people ask for (or search for) extra large, don’t make them feel small by forcing them to say vente. Just give them what they want with a smile.

Delight new customers by giving away free samples. Experiencing generosity makes people feel valued and more generous in return. Receiving thoughtfulness and extra value makes it likely that visitors will return. If they can’t return, they might at least mention how great their experience was and how easy and fun it was to deal with you.

Even when you won’t make money today, be pleasant and helpful. If you can’t provide what users need, try to steer them in the right direction. When people drop by without intending to make a purchase, but they need your help with something simple, help them meet their basic needs for free if you can. Your helpfulness will often be reciprocated and turned into more business.

Offer honest advice when people ask for it. If people ask you whether the awful stroganoff is good, and you say yes, you will lose those customers' trust forever, and they might also return the food for a refund. Dishonesty is a lose-lose proposition. Instead, steer people toward something that you anticipate they will love, and try to get the poor-quality items taken off the menu.

Just take the money. If people want to buy something you sell, don’t make them join something or tell you about their personal preferences first. Remove everything that gets in the way of a fast, smooth transaction.

Expert Users

Reward frequent customers by giving them more of what they like. Your best customers do your best marketing. Recognize repeat customers. Remember what they prefer.

Don't make frequent visitors slog through first-time–visitor rituals and orientation. Ask them if they already know what they want.

Experienced customers often become the host for their own guests. Never embarrass or be rude to a host customer if they are relatively well behaved. Instead, support their need to be recognized and useful. Have a super-helpful forum user? Maybe they’d make a great moderator. Is your customer an unpaid salesperson? Make it worth their while by showing your gratitude appropriately.

Redesigns

People identify with places they frequent. The familiar comforts people, and they become proud of their expertise and inside knowledge over time. Change can be disruptive on a personal level if it's abrupt, heavy handed, or if it removes a favorite item irrevocably. A completely new menu might as well be from a new business, because everyone must now learn it from scratch. Don’t punish those who have invested the time to learn your UI by changing everything at once.

When change must occur, retain the features most valued by customers. Keep things that positively differentiate your products, services, design, and brand from your competitors’.

When prices go up or value goes down, many customers just leave. Don’t increase the effort of staying, make it the easiest thing to do. Avoid the false economy of cutting quality and disappointing your loyal supporters.

Community Management

Hospitality matters. Treat people the way you would want your loved ones to be treated in their place.

Satisfy customers. Don't let anyone leave hungry because of too-small portions. If you can't provide something your users want, partner with companies that can, in order to fill the whole need.

Thank customers for both their referrals and for their constructive criticism. If you act like you don’t want to hear the bad news, you won’t find out how you should improve. Commitment to customer satisfaction (and a polite thank you) earns the referrals.

Make sure important or frequent customer feedback gets to top management. Customers and VIPs are your best allies when changes need to be made.

Treat everyone with courtesy and respect, especially when they are angry. Defuse tense situations immediately if possible.

Toss out belligerent people — whether customers or employees — after one private warning. They become damaging to the business quickly.

Good user experience is much more than task completion, efficiency, and error reduction. It requires creating customer delight and meeting expectations consistently in a comfortable setting. In UX (as in restaurants) friendliness, fairness, and fun matter just as much as the food.

Getting Started With Your Own UX Career

Read Tog’s First Principles of Interaction Design, and don’t miss his essential Interaction Design: 3-Day Course, which can be applied toward UX Certification.

Download our free report on User Experience Careers.