Fast Food Kitchen Management System
Project challenge
A client from Finland, running a fast food restaurant in an amusement park, wanted to reduce long queues that formed during peak hours. Although the kitchen staff could prepare a standard meal (burger, fries, and a drink) in just 10 seconds, the manual ordering system — based on handwritten notes — was causing delays at the counter and confusion during busy times. The client was tech-savvy and eager to modernize the restaurant. The goal was to introduce a digital solution that would speed up the ordering process, ease the workload for staff, and improve the customer experience, without slowing down food preparation.
My role
I worked as a UX/UI Designer alongside another designer. I was responsible for the full design process — from gathering requirements and researching the market to delivering the final interface designs.
Discovery
The project began with gathering requirements from the client. Based on this, the design scope included:
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POS terminals
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Self-service kiosks
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Kitchen staff screens (large displays and tablets)
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Customer order pickup screens
Next, structured in-depth interviews were conducted online with 8 restaurant staff members to understand their daily tasks and workflows.
Following the research, existing kitchen operations were mapped out, and new user flows for both customers and staff were designed. Upon client approval of these flows, the project proceeded to the design of mockups.
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Initial order flow
Design
The design phase involved creating interfaces for multiple devices, including tablets, POS terminals, kitchen screens, and customer-facing pickup displays. Each flow started with low-fidelity wireframes to explore layout and functionality, followed by high-fidelity mockups tailored to the specific use case and screen type.
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Final outcome
The final solution included a fully digital order management system tailored to the fast-paced environment of a theme park restaurant. Self-service kiosks helped reduce queues significantly, while clear and responsive interfaces for staff improved communication between front-of-house and kitchen. The system maintained the restaurant’s fast order fulfillment time while streamlining operations and modernizing the customer experience.
Kitchen
Pending
Serving
Real-life test run
To validate the solution, the full kitchen system was tested with real staff. After receiving a short onboarding, team members were asked to start working as usual. Pre-filled test orders began flowing through the system, and staff handled them confidently—receiving and completing orders without hesitation. During the test session, everything ran smoothly. When we asked if they had any questions or concerns, their response was simply: “No—everything’s clear.” It was the best feedback we could have hoped for.
Select item
Customize
Accept
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Evaluation
The user testing phase proved to be a major success — restaurant staff had no difficulties operating the new system. Follow-up surveys conducted one month after implementation showed an average satisfaction rate of 92% among employees. The client expressed strong appreciation for the collaboration and entrusted us with a follow-up project: designing an internal inventory management system for the restaurant.
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