The golden arches gleam with a bright interior design that uses technology to make dining fun and efficient, finds John Ryan.

Sometimes it pays to look beyond retail’s immediate backyard to get a sense of what is possible in store design, and a good example of this is to be found on Oxford Street, opposite Tottenham Court Road station.

Here the burger king McDonald’s has fitted out its store in a manner that brings together the digital and physical worlds in a way that seems wholly natural.

From the moment a hungry visitor walks through the door, outsize screens that look like blown-up smartphones allow orders to be placed while avoiding the usual queues.

Deeper into the shop, screens above the servery convey the readiness of the ordered food items and, once the burger, shake and fries have been collected, there’s a good-looking stepped seating area upstairs. iPads allow diners to game, chat or read the news as the fancy takes them.

Couple all this with a most un-burger-like ambience and this is an interior from which others might learn.