Welcome back. Movie theaters are fighting back against Netflix with reclining chairs and beer delivered to your seat. Food-and-drink startups are getting crafty as they try to make up for tastings canceled amid the coronavirus epidemic. And companies aren’t overlooking the employee experience, either.

Event organizers around the world are canceling events on an unprecedented scale during the coronavirus epidemic, but many of the experiences they planned can at least take a virtual form through live-streams.

The food-and-drink industry doesn’t have the same luxury, Yuliya Chernova writes for the Experience Report. You can’t taste a new drink through Zoom Video.

Ficks Beverage spent between $10,000 and $15,000 preparing to serve its juice-based hard seltzers on tap in its booth at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif.—only to have the Expo postponed indefinitely at the last moment.

The startup had to drum up different ways to get in front of the investors who would no longer be able to sample its wares at the Expo. “We’ll send them one of our variety packs and jump on a video call so we can taste it together, even though we are thousands of miles apart,” said Ficks Chief Executive Ron Alvarado.

Ficks is far from alone.

Related: TED2020 asked registered attendees whether to go online-only or keep the in-person event but reschedule to July from April. Attendees voted for the live experience. [TED Blog] 

Anxious to retain and energize staffers, more companies say they are making employee happiness a priority. That’s fueled a cottage industry devoted to monitoring, analyzing and improving workers’ moods.

It has also raised new questions about whether employee privacy is at risk as companies monitor more of their workers’ behavior.

At some workplaces, software trawls email and Slack messages for words that may be associated with depression and fatigue, the Journal reports. At others, workers are asked to regularly log their frame of mind with a smiley or frowning face, or track their moods on apps.

Research suggests that happy workers are more productive, according to research published last year, and a strong corporate culture can make workplaces more attractive to job seekers.

“We’ve moved beyond just, ‘I want you to get 10,000 steps every day,’” said Cindy Bjorkquist, director of health and well being for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. “I want you to have an improved mental state.”

Movie theater owners are figuring out how to fight back against Netflix and other streaming services that tempt customers to stay home: Upgrade the experience.

The Emagine theater chain has spent hundreds of millions of dollars erecting and refurbishing its more than 200 screens across four Midwest states for the streaming-video era.

It has also installed new projector technology and better audio equipment, John D. Stoll writes for the Journal. And the menu has expanded to include quesadillas, craft beers and cocktails.

Audience numbers have remained healthy, and the chain has increased revenue by 20% annually since 2016.

“If we don’t continue to innovate people will vote with their wallets,” said Paul Glantz, the accountant-turned-entrepreneur who started Emagine in the 1990s.

Budweiser wants you to shake its new nitrogen-bubble beer before you drink it, then pour it down the middle of the glass. [Fast Company] 

As travelers worry about the coronavirus, United Airlines changed its rules to make it harder to get refunds, then altered the rules again to make them more vague. [WSJ]

Advice if you find yourself leading a remote design team. [Mark Boulton]

Amazon decided not to offer a “green” shipping option to avoid any chance it would make consumers think twice before completing their orders. [Bloomberg]

Sonos stopped asking customers to brick their old speakers with a “recycle mode” before they could trade up. [Engadget] 

How to incorporate data analytics into the user experience practice. [UX Collective]

The idea that designing for the “average” person can serve 80% of the market is wrong. [UX Magazine]