Previously, you chose the seating plan layout template on the seating plan page. This came from a very early design decision: I wanted it to be possible to just plough straight into setting up a product without having to do ANY setup first. Which meant that layouts were optional; you should be able to just start adding seats to a bare plan, and if you wanted to copy a layout from something else, or save it for later, so much the better.
There’s something to be said for this, but in real life:
- Nobody ever starts trying to setup a new seated product like this
- Real users all have pre-defined layouts and just use them.
So, I’ve changed the flow of the screen, and now you pick the layout FIRST (on the product page) and can then proceed to the view the seating plan if you want:
It should be clearer and easier to use in 99.9% of realistic use cases.