The Ask

The Kitchen Display System (KDS) allows kitchen orders to display on an iPad screen as opposed to physical kitchen printer that prints receipts. Similar to regular kitchen printers, establishments can run multiple screens and have specific products appear at each one.

Our Team at Compass Digital Labs was tasked with redesigning this tool to enhance the workflow of our kitchen staff.

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The Challenge

After researching and speaking to workers in a kitchen, we established that one major point point for them was knowing the status of an order. Conventionally, this is done through colours and a timer. Another pain point was having large tappable buttons, to quickly start and complete an order. Workers also had a difficult time understanding any modifications or enhancements to orders.

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The Process

First Iteration

For our first iteration it was very important to us to get the version out in the kitchens, so we could see how it works in the field and alter the product. Our philosophy was really to build, measure, and learn. As this platform was on iPad, we leveraged the iOS human guidelines to create cards, lists, and buttons that was native. This allowed us to borrow from already established ux patterns. For workers to easily identify the status of orders we created a very noticeable coloured bar at the top of each order card.

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Options Button

We decided to use the standard menu button to show more options for workers, like refunding an order. One issue we ran into was that this list of options could get overwhelming really quickly. To address this, we broke this options button into two buttons. One that allowed kitchen staff to communicate with servers and customers. The other button was to do all other operations.

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Refund Process

To refund an order, we designed a way to allow workers to enter a code to successfully refund the order. An issue we saw was that this function could be abused very easily with a lack of accountability.

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Second Iteraction

Incorporating an options buttons to allow for more functionality in the card. This is an example of how the new buttons look like in the order cards.

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Facial Recognition

Inspired by facial recognition like Face ID, we decided to implement this into the refund verification process. This feature allowed workers to be handsfree, quickly identify who they were. Increasing the efficiency of the workflow and creating more accountability.

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Next Steps

For the third iteration of the product, it was important for us to improve the labeling and communication aspect of the app. We received feedback from chefs, around the importance of health and food safety and how great it would be to incorporate labels if a customer had severe allergies.