Pitching in as yet another dev who also thought of implementing this :)
There were just too many constraints for it to be feasible as a web app in our case. Examples of some of those constraints that make it difficult:
* different table sizes, each with a min. and max. seats
* every table has a "head of table", which has to face the bridal couple
* we preferred couples/genders were mixed at every table, not sitting next to each other
* people who must/should/definitely shouldn't sit at the same table
* distances between people mattered: certain groups should be closer/further away from each other
* distances to the main table mattered
* the exact location of the table mattered (for example, older people should have more room/closer to the toilet/away from the dance floor)
It might seem like overengineering to some :) But in the end, it didn't take us too much time to make the layout: we just printed out all the names, and laid them out physically. Then we used that physical layout at the entrance to show people where they are seated. Most of the work was actually cutting out the names, finding them in the pile, physically placing them, ... So I guess if someone just made a beautiful drag-and-drop UI and let the user do the optimization work, and ignore implementing all the "smart stuff", that would work for many people. I guess you could even monetize it by allowing people to print out the layouts in a beautiful way (engraved in wood or whatever) and have it shipped.
(edit: damn it's annoying that HN doesn't support fully markdown for bullet point lists)
Thanks for the insights! At the moment, the app is targeted at "table level" rather than "seat level".
This already has different table sizes.
There's already a way to mark who should/not sit together
For location, I'm thinking of adding a draggable UI to put tables in relative places. But at first, I don't want to make this too complex for people to use.
Also, thinking of adding attributes to both groups and tables to get people to what they need (bathrooms, dance floor etc).
There's definitely already lots of apps/sites that let people do the pretty stuff, but they seem really manual at the moment.
Let me know if you have any more thoughts! Thanks for looking!
Could the "different table sizes" problem be solved by setting all tables to a maximum size while adding a "null person" to the imaginary seats at smaller tables?
There were just too many constraints for it to be feasible as a web app in our case. Examples of some of those constraints that make it difficult:
* different table sizes, each with a min. and max. seats
* every table has a "head of table", which has to face the bridal couple
* we preferred couples/genders were mixed at every table, not sitting next to each other
* people who must/should/definitely shouldn't sit at the same table
* distances between people mattered: certain groups should be closer/further away from each other
* distances to the main table mattered
* the exact location of the table mattered (for example, older people should have more room/closer to the toilet/away from the dance floor)
It might seem like overengineering to some :) But in the end, it didn't take us too much time to make the layout: we just printed out all the names, and laid them out physically. Then we used that physical layout at the entrance to show people where they are seated. Most of the work was actually cutting out the names, finding them in the pile, physically placing them, ... So I guess if someone just made a beautiful drag-and-drop UI and let the user do the optimization work, and ignore implementing all the "smart stuff", that would work for many people. I guess you could even monetize it by allowing people to print out the layouts in a beautiful way (engraved in wood or whatever) and have it shipped.
(edit: damn it's annoying that HN doesn't support fully markdown for bullet point lists)