Investigating the physical indicators contributing to privacy as the factor improving the customers’ satisfaction in restaurants (Comparative case studies: Lomenz and Chooji restaurants)

Public and semi-public spaces such as restaurants and cafes always have played important roles in the daily life of people. By the increasing trend of competition in the management of restaurants, the satisfaction of customers is emphasized as an important factor of the success and profitability of restaurants. The environment of restaurants contributes to customers’ satisfaction effectively, and leading to the attraction of more customers, a key element in the design of restaurants is to create private zones in these spaces. Privacy is of importance from different aspects, but it is neglected in today’s programming fields. Therefore, the purpose of the present research is to investigate the physical components contributing to privacy in restaurants and to analyze how each component contributes to the satisfaction of customers. Thus, the questions to be answered in this study are what are the factors affecting satisfaction in restaurants? Which physical components in the restaurant design will lead to privacy? How have these components functioned in each case study (Lomenz and Chooji restaurants)? The present research is an applied study in terms of essence, and a qualitative study in terms of method. In the first step, the library and documental studies are investigated and the conceptual model of the research is extracted. In the second step, the indicators contributing to privacy in case studies are compared by field studies. The results indicate that the physical indicators contributing to privacy in restaurants are partitioning, color separation on the floor or walls, task lighting, change in ceiling height, application of semitransparent shells, and flowerboxes. The analyses show that in the case of Lomenz Restaurant, the most important factor of privacy is the change in form and height of the ceiling, and in the case of Chooji Restaurant, it is semitransparent wooden partitioning.