A-List
Modern night clubs have an old-fashioned problem. Bouncers at the door manage paper-based guest lists, sometimes thousands of names long, and check guests off as they arrive. These lists are a nightmare to maintain, and guests must stand in line waiting to get into the club.
Now events can be managed from the palm of the hand.
Client
A-List Software is a new company focused on solving the problem of guest list management at night clubs and other events.
Night club managers must maintain lists of hundreds of thousands of guests per night. Guest lists arrive from promoters in the form of emails and Excel spreadsheets. Often managers will spend hours per day managing these lists.
A-List solves this problem by providing software for guest list managers and promoters. With the iPhone version, they sought to make the process seamless, so that guests get checked off at the door and get entered into the system seamlessly.
Challenges
Usability. The app has to be very easy to use. Bouncers are checking off hundreds or thousands of names. Guests are standing in line, and the software must speed up the process, not slow it down. Search has to be fast.
Offline and online. The app has to store the guest list on the phone, so that if the network connection goes down the line doesn't stop.
Connected. The app needs to send the guest status information to a central A-List server using an XML-based web service.
The Solution
Event Synchronization
One of the challenges with mobile devices is that network connectivity can be sporadic. The A-List application downloads a list of guests and stores it on a local database. This database is synchronized when connected to the network.
The A-List iPhone client connects to the A-List server using a web service interface.
Guest Search
Autocomplete guest search enables fast name lookup.
Usability
We kept the user interface simple and minimal to keep the guest line moving.