Work / NOLINE · Smart queues
Start a project
NOLINE  ·  our own product

Your turn,
without the line.

Any business, from a food court to a hospital to the mutton shop down the road, can hand out a digital token instead of a queue. Scan a QR code or book ahead, go about your day, and your phone tells you when it is your turn.

Product
Smart tokens and appointments for any business
Our role
Founders · product, UX and UI
Apps
Customer app, business app, front desk web, admin
Status
Paused in 2020, when COVID closed the counters
Next is your turnPlease reach to the front desk
97
5 Tokens to goWaiting time 32min
Why this one is personal
NOLINE was not a client brief. It was ours.

We kept seeing the same scene: a crowd at the hospital desk, a queue at the food court, a dozen people waiting at the mutton shop for their number to be called. So we built the fix ourselves. We put our own time and money into it and designed every side of it, from the business that signs up to the person holding the token. Then COVID closed the very places it was made for, and in 2020 we had to stop.

A crowded bank branch in India, people pressing at the counters
The problem

Standing in line is time nobody gets back.

Every counter has a queue, and every queue needs people to stand in it. NOLINE replaces the line with a token on your phone.

Food court97Walk-in
5 tokens to go

Food court

Scan the QR at the counter, take a token, and sit down. Your phone tells you when your food is ready.

Hospital12:30Appointment
Today, 12 Jan

Hospital

Call the hospital and book an appointment. NOLINE tells you where you are in line, and when you are next.

Mutton shop97Pickup
Current token no. 93

Mutton shop

Scan the QR in the shop, order what you want, and get alerted when it is ready to pick up.

Bank98Walk-in
Waiting time 32min

Bank

Take a token at the door and wait anywhere. No crowd around the counter.

Diagnostic labB1Booking
12:30pm

Diagnostic lab

Book a slot for a blood checkup and walk in when it is your turn.

Pharmacy99Pickup
Its ready

Pharmacy

Hand over the prescription, then come back when the medicine is packed.

Bar100Walk-in
Table for 4

Bar

Put your name down for a table and wait with a drink, not at the door.

Salon01:00Booking
Today

Salon

Book the chair for a time, and get told if the stylist is running late.

Sweet shop101Pickup
Next is your turn

Sweet shop

Order the festival box ahead and skip the rush at the counter.

Restaurant389Walk-in
Appx time 2min

Restaurant

Join the waitlist from the pavement. The table is held for you when it is ready.

Kirana store297Pickup
Its ready

Kirana store

Send the list, get a token, and pick up the bags when they are packed.

Any business with a counter can run NOLINE. These are a few of them.
How it works

Four steps, zero lines.

The business signs up once and puts up its QR code. The customer downloads NOLINE once, and it works at every business on it.

1

The business signs up

Mobile number, OTP and outlet details. Once verified, it is live.

2

It puts up its QR code

One code at the counter, printed straight from the app.

3

The customer scans

Scan for a token, or call and get booked by the front desk.

4

The phone calls you

"Next is your turn", then "Its ready". No one stands in line.

The customer app

One app for every kind of line.

Every token is a ticket. Its colour says what kind of line you are in, and its number tells you how far you are from the front.

Walk-in · Bank

You are in the queue now. Waiting time, tokens to go and the current token, live.

Booking · Hospital

An appointment for a time. The token is held for 15 minutes, so be on time.

Pickup · Pub

Order now, collect later. Come back only when it is ready.

Download once. Works at every counter on NOLINE.
The alert

The phone does the waiting.

A table for four at Pump House on a busy night. As the waitlist moves, the ticket moves with it, and when the table is ready NOLINE does not wait for you to check.

Step 1

Next is your turn

About two minutes to go. Head to the front desk.

Step 2

Ready

The table is held for a few minutes, then it goes to the next party in line.

Step 3

Its ready

On Android it takes over the screen and rings, like a call.

Step 4

Completed

Served, and the ticket closes itself.

On Android, NOLINE rings full screen.The alert is built to be impossible to miss, so people can really walk away from the counter.
The business app

The front desk runs the line.

The counter sees every token for the day, adds walk-ins by name, phone and party size, and moves each one from waiting to ready to done.

Three queues, one screenWalk-in, Pick Up and Booking, side by side for today and tomorrow.
Ready, then DoneReady alerts the customer. A timer shows how long the counter has been waiting for them.
Phone or webThe same queue on the counter's phone and on a desk screen.
Onboarding a business

From sign up to QR code.

A business owner signs in with a mobile number, registers the outlet, gets verified and prints a QR code for the counter.

Sign inRegistered mobile number and OTP
Register the outletLogo, name, branch, location, type
VerifiedWelcome, and the outlet is live
First tokenName, mobile, date and time
The printoutThe QR code that goes on the counter wall
The admin panel

One panel behind every counter.

We ran the platform from here: new outlets waiting for approval, the features each one needed, its team and admins, and every customer.

Take actionNew outlets wait for approval before they go live.
Features per outletWalk-in, Pickup, Booking, or a hospital's doctors and departments.
Team and adminsAdd users, make one an admin, or remove them.
Clients and customersActivate or deactivate an outlet, and block a customer.
Design notes

The ticket is the interface.

A few decisions carried the whole product.

01A ticket, not a formA perforated card with one big number. People already know how to read a token.
02Colour means typeTeal for walk-in, orange for booking, blue for pickup.
03Yellow means act nowOnly "Next is your turn", "READY" and "Its ready" use it.
04The place, not the appEach ticket carries the business: its photo, logo and branch.

Paused, not finished.

NOLINE stopped in 2020. The lines it was built to remove are still there.

Start a project More work