How many do you need?
Walk the room and count seats, not just tables. Everyone at the table should be able to reach a tile without leaning over someone's food.
- Two-seat and four-seat tables: one tile.
- Long or shared tables: two, or one for each end.
- Bar seats: one for every few seats, in the gaps between them.
- The counter or till: a stand, so everyone who walks in can see it.
- Spares: order a few more than you need. Tiles get lost and damaged.
Where each tile goes
Keep it clear of plates
Sit at the table with the plates, glasses and condiments where they normally go. Put the tile where nothing usually sits. If a guest has to move something to find it, they won't bother.
Keep it away from metal
Standard tags may perform poorly or not at all on metal. Check under the tabletop too: metal frames and bases can sit just below a wood or stone top. If the table is metal, try a ferrite-backed tag first.
Make it obvious what it is for
Guests won't tap something they don't recognise. Face it towards the seat, in the same place on every table, so regulars learn where it is.
Terraces and direct sun
NXP's datasheet gives an ambient limit of 70 °C for the chip, but the glue and casing are separate, and we have not seen test data for a Dubai summer. Try one tile outside for a while before you do them all.
Test before you stick
Do this on one table first, then on every table.
- Hold the tile in place, without peeling it.
- Tap with a recent iPhone. It should show a banner, which you tap.
- Tap with an Android phone that has NFC on.
- Try again with a thick phone case on.
- Turn off Wi-Fi and load the page on mobile data, as a guest might.
- Check the page is right. Press every button.
- Clean the spot, dry it, and stick the tile down.
Plan for phones that can't tap
A tile has no QR code, so a guest with an older iPhone or no NFC can't use it. Give them another way, such as the stand's QR code at the counter, a QR code on your printed menu, or a member of staff. See which phones can tap.
Every tile opens the same page
All of Kyvo's tiles and the stand open your venue's one page, so you don't have to keep track of which tile goes on which table. If you need to know which table a guest is at, for ordering for example, write to us and tell us how you would use it.
Keeping them working
- Look at them regularly. Add it to the closing checklist, and remove any sticker that isn't yours. A sticker over a real tile can send guests to the wrong place.
- Tap one each week. Links change and pages move, so check the page still opens.
- Replace damaged tiles. Don't wait for a guest to find out it doesn't work.
- Tell new staff. "Unlock your phone and hold it flat on the tile" is the first thing to say.
Sources
- NXP: NTAG213/215/216 datasheet
- NXP: AN12339, antenna design guide for NTAG 5 Boost (its introduction, on metal environments)
- Apple Developer: background tag reading
- Android Developers: NFC basics
- Google Wallet Help: phone cases
- W3C Web NFC mailing list: stickers over tags, and writable tags
- Avery Dennison: NFC tags on metal