Reducing errors in high-pressure kitchens

A kitchen display redesigned for order clarity mid-service.

Year: 2023
Client: NCR Voyix
Role: Product Designer
Timeline: 8 months
Platform: Kiosk (Tablet)
Team: 1 PM, 2 Designers, 6 Engineers

Kitchen Display System Active View showing order tickets in a restaurant kitchen — Active view with order tickets at a glance.

Problem

Orders move from the Point of Sale (POS) to the Kitchen Display System (KDS), where line cooks and expediters run the line under pressure. NCR's kitchen display was outdated, and the redesign had to work in kitchens that are loud, messy, and fast.

We had to show dense order detail (table numbers, statuses, modifiers) in limited space, keep it readable from three feet away, and make it usable with gloves or wet, greasy hands.

Approach

I ran a competitor audit and built personas for line cooks and expediters, then worked with the PM to rank features on an impact-effort matrix. Rush, refires, reprint, and tagging came first. Customer messaging and splitting courses across tickets did not. Kitchen surveys told us what belonged on the ticket; everything else got cut.

Impact-effort matrix prioritizing rush orders, refires, ticket reprint, and quick tagging over customer communication and course-split tickets — Quick wins first: rush, refires, reprint, and tagging over lower-priority asks.

I designed bump, rush, recall, and refire for touchscreens under steam and noise: tap for routine completion, long-press for re-prioritisation.

Long-press to rush a ticket.

Recall a bumped ticket back to Active.

Key decision

Dense order detail and readability at three feet pulled against each other. I chose readability, and made accessibility the rule the rest of the system followed.

Cooks read tickets from across a loud kitchen, so we tested readability remotely with them and added kerning to keep letters distinct at a distance, borrowing from road signage. Their hands are usually gloved or wet, so I sized up the touch targets. Status colors carry real meaning (rushed, exceeded, bumped), so I pushed contrast to WCAG AA and checked how those colors read for colorblind cooks.

Ticket text with and without added kerning, showing improved letterform distinction — Kerning added for legibility at distance.

Ticket status colors simulated for deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia color blindness — Hue separation verified across common color vision deficiencies.

Final Active View with order tickets, statuses, and modifiers — Active view with live orders.

Outcome

This didn't launch before I left NCR, so nothing was measured. The design makes voided items, out-of-stock flags, and modifiers easier to spot at a glance, and rush orders stand out through motion and color. I'd measure it by missed orders during service.