CASE STUDY
Kitchen Flow
Effortless inventory even in a rush
ROLE
TOOLS
Google Sheets
Figma
TEAM
Elaine S.
Cecilia L.
Heidi S.
TIMELINE
March 2025- June 2025
CONTEXT
What is Kitchen Flow?
Kitchen Flow is a restaurant inventory app created for Val’s Vegan Kitchen. Our team replaced sticky notes and spreadsheets with a centralized system to simplify stock tracking, cut waste, and keep kitchens running smoothly during peak hours.
THE PROBLEM
Without a reliable system, staff often struggled to keep track of stock across multiple fridges and freezers.
The result?
Frequent Miscounts
Training Issues
Wasted Ingredients
Stressful Workflows
USER RESEARCH PROCESS
Without a reliable system, kitchen inventory managed by notes and memory quickly becomes error-prone and costly.
Early Concepts
We began with a 150+ item ingredient list. Many items appeared in multiple storage areas (e.g., fries in both freezer and fridge), tracking was confusing.
To explore solutions, I prototyped two models in Google Sheets:
By Type – grouped items by category (Faux Meats, Vegetables).
By Location – organized stock by storage areas (Walk-In Fridge, Freezer).
👉 Insight: Staff naturally thought in terms of where they were in the kitchen. This made the location-first model the clearest and most efficient direction.
User Testing - Google Sheets Prototype
WHAT WORKED
Switching workflows supported different needs
WHAT DID NOT WORK
Quantity checkboxes caused confusion
Column labels lacked clarity across locations
Navigation paths were difficult and confusing to discover
Insights from Staff
“I don’t have time to double-check while rushing between tasks.”
“I’m new here, and I’m not sure how to update the counts without messing it up.”
“I just need to know the total across all locations so I can reorder quickly.”
“I’m used to Excel, but I need a clearer way to see stock by location and overall.”
Staff frustrations revealed three clear needs: speed, clarity, and error-proofing
Which became the foundation of our redesign
Redesigned spreadsheets into a streamlined system with location-based wireframes, sign-up, quick links, and item cards.
USER FLOW
We translated our ideation into a flow chart that visualized how different users, cooks, managers, and new hires would navigate the system. This helped us ensure that location-based filtering, item cards, and quantity updates were simple and intuitive across contexts.
LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES
With the flow in place, I sketched low-fi wireframes. These focused on clearer navigation, plus/minus quantity controls, and location-based item cards to ensure quick, error-free updates under real kitchen conditions.
USER TESTING
1
Inputting User
Position: Veteran Cook
Context: Updating Walk-In Fridge during dinner rush.
Pain Points: Totals unclear, no per-location breakdown, too many taps.
Iteration: Item card redesigned to show per-location + total
2
Quantity Reading User
Position: Assistant Manager
Context: Reviewing totals to plan next day’s orders.
Pain Points: No clear totals upfront, inconsistent drill paths, no tap-through.
Iteration: Added bold “Total On-Hand,” consistent drill paths, tap-through into locations.
3
Follow Ups
During and after tasks, we asked targeted prompts to surface hidden issues. Example questions included:
“How clear was the process of updating counts?”
“What tripped you up the most?”
“How confident are you in your entries (1–5)?”
“If you needed to add a new item, what would you do?”
These open-ended questions gave us deeper insights into clarity, navigation, and user expectations than task data alone.
4
Metrics
We combined simple numeric ratings with open feedback to understand how users experienced the system. Participants scored both ease of task completion and confidence in accuracy on a 1–5 scale. They also noted missing functionality such as the need for an undo button or clearer category filters
QUANTITY ADJUSTMENT ITERATIONS
Tap To Increment View
Large number centered for quick readability
Slower for larger adjustments
Requires multiple taps
Scroll to Wheel Picker
Less Tapping
Hard to land on exact number
Slow for Large Changed
Scroll to Wheel Picker
Type exact number
Separate by location
Quick +/- tweaks
We chose Option 3 for its speed and accuracy. Direct input let staff update quantities quickly, while location-based separation reduced errors and gave a clearer view balancing efficiency and clarity for real kitchen workflows.
ITEM-CARD QUANTITY VISIBILITY ITERATIONS
Single Location Only
Simple Layout
Only shows one freezer
Requires clicking into multiple screens
Multiple Locations
Shows breakdown across locations
No Total Quantity
Higher cognitive load → slows decision-making
Total + Locations
Combines total + per-location view
Status cues highlight issues
Editable rows for fast adjustments
We chose Option 3 for its ability to show totals and per-location details on one screen, reducing memory load and calculation errors. The final design gave staff a clear, reliable view of inventory with less effort.
FINAL DESIGN
Remove a Storage Location
Update Item Quantities by Location
View Activty Log
REFLECTION
Beyond the classroom
What started as a quarter-long course project became a deeper exploration as I refined it for my case study. I spent extra time iterating on flows, testing new ideas, and polishing details pushing myself to grow beyond the classroom and into real-world design practice.
Growth as a designer
This project taught me the importance of iteration and persistence. I learned how to balance usability testing, interaction design, and visual systems to create solutions built for real people. More than anything, I developed confidence in my process and clarity in my design voice.
Looking forward
If I had more time, I’d extend testing with restaurant staff in different settings and explore multi-location support. These next steps would ensure the system can scale a challenge I’d be excited to solve in future roles.
