Fast Food Kitchen Management System
Project overview
A digital kitchen management system designed for a fast food restaurant located in an amusement park in Finland, where extreme peak-hour demand required highly efficient coordination between order intake and food preparation.
Business problem
Despite the kitchen team being able to prepare a standard meal (burger, fries, drink) in just 10 seconds, long queues still formed during peak hours. The main bottleneck was not food preparation, but a manual ordering process based on handwritten notes, which caused delays and miscommunication in the kitchen during busy hours.
Project goal
Design a digital system that would streamline order handling, reduce pressure on staff, and improve customer flow without slowing down the highly optimized process.
Very early in the project, it became clear to me that we couldn’t slow down food preparation. Instead, the system had to match the kitchen’s speed - not force the kitchen to match the system.
My role
I worked as a UX/UI Designer alongside another designer, contributing to the full design process - from requirements gathering and user research to final interface design.
Discovery & research
The discovery phase focused on understanding how orders moved through the restaurant during peak hours and where the real operational bottlenecks occurred.
The project began with requirement gathering sessions with the client, which defined the system scope, including:
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POS terminals
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Self-service kiosks
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Kitchen staff displays (large screens and tablets)
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Customer order pickup screens
To understand the reality behind these touchpoints, we conducted structured in-depth interviews with 6 kitchen staff members. The goal was to learn how they worked under time pressure, how information was shared, and what typically went wrong during rush hours.
the design of mockups.
Key patterns from research:
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Peak-hour pressure: Long queues between 12:00–14:00 created high pressure on staff, resulting in small but frequent mistakes.
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Inconsistent prioritization: Order prioritization was largely based on individual experience, leading to unpredictable handling and potential delays.
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Complex order errors: Simple orders were handled smoothly but larger or more complex orders often led to mistakes during assembly.
Insight: The core bottleneck was not the speed of food preparation itself, but information flow, coordination, and order management under pressure.
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Initial order flow
Turning insights into design
Based on the research insights, the main design challenge was to support fast-paced kitchen operations while maintaining order accuracy and clear prioritization. Key considerations included:
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Matching the system to kitchen speed: Simple orders could be handled smoothly, so the interface needed to allow rapid processing without slowing down the workflow.
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Prioritization support: Since staff currently relied on experience to prioritize orders, the system had to make order priority explicit and easy to act on.
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Error reduction for complex orders: Interfaces needed to provide clarity and guidance for assembling larger, multi-item orders to reduce mistakes.
To address these challenges, the design process followed a multi-device approach, reflecting the different touchpoints in the restaurant:
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POS Terminals – designed for quick entry and prioritization of orders, with visual cues highlighting complex items.
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Self-service Kiosks – simplified input for customers, automatically integrating into the kitchen workflow.
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Kitchen Displays (tablets & large screens) – real-time order visibility, clear prioritization, and easy navigation between orders.
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Pickup Screens – customer-facing displays for order readiness, reducing staff interruptions.
Each flow began with low-fidelity wireframes to explore layout and interactions, followed by high-fidelity mockups tailored to each device type. Decisions at every stage were guided by the research insights, ensuring the design solved the actual operational problems rather than just creating visually appealing screens.
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Final solution
The final solution was a fully digital order management system tailored to the fast-paced environment of a theme park restaurant. Self-service kiosks reduced queues during peak hours, while 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
Testing & validation
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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Impact & results
User testing and follow-up surveys showed high adoption and satisfaction: 92% of staff reported confidence in using the new system. The client praised the implementation and entrusted us with a follow-up project designing an internal inventory management system.
Key learnings
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Adapting to real workflow is critical: slowing staff down would have broken the solution.
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Multi-device solution drives efficiency: designing interfaces across POS terminal, self-service kiosks, kitchen tablets, and pickup displays was key to optimizing a complex restaurant process.
Discover how this solution works in practice → PowerPark needed to ensure sales and positive customer experience during the restaurant's busiest hours
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