HubOrder:
Centralized,
Customized,
Humanized 

A fast, intuitive platform for 
restaurants to manage orders, menus, and 
guest engagement — all in one.

Role:

CPO • System Designer • UX Strategist & Designer

Year:

2020

Industry:

Hospitality — Restaurant Chains & Hotel Groups

Business Model:

B2B2C

Tech Stack Highlights:

  • Design Tools: Figma, Adobe XD, Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Project Management: Jira, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Planner

  • User Research & Discovery: Miro, Google Forms, Typeform

  • Prototyping & User Testing: AdobeXD Prototypes, 

PHP for application logic

Node.js for real-time and background task handling

  • Languages & Frameworks: PHP 
  • Node.js for real-time and background task handling
  • Vue.js for modern, reactive UI components
  • Database: MySQL / SQL
  • API Integration:
    • FDA Nutrition API – for real-time nutrition data
    • Stripe / FinTech Payment APIs – for secure online payments
    • Custom Restaurant & Inventory APIs – internal logic and integrations
  • Cloud Platform: AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, etc)
  • AWS AppSync for real-time data sync across cashier UIs, kitchen views, and manager dashboards
  • Version Control & CI/CD: GitHub, GitHub Actions (for CI/CD)
  • Deployment Pipelines: Docker + GitHub Actions
  • Monitoring & Logs: AWS CloudWatch or 3rd party, Datadog.
  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for chefs, managers, servers, guests
  • Permissions-based menu management system
  • Stripe PCI-compliant payment handling
  • Twilio for SMS and in-app guest communication
  • SendGrid for branded transactional and marketing emails

The Problem

Fragmented Tech, Frustrated People

It’s 2020. You walk into a typical restaurant, maybe a local chain or a national franchise. Everything looks sharp on the surface—neon menus, shiny registers, maybe even a tablet or kiosk by the door.

But behind the scenes?

It’s a tangle of disconnected systems, legacy software, and tech that feels more like 2007 than 2020.

Personalization? Nowhere to Be Found.

  • When a guest walks in, the system doesn’t know them.

    • It doesn’t remember their favorite gluten-free item.
    • It doesn’t know they’re allergic to sesame.
    • It can’t greet them with a personalized upsell or recommend the seasonal special based on the weather.

    Instead, it offers the same flat experience to everyone, every time.

    No surprise, then, that 78% of U.S. diners in 2020 said they wanted personalized recommendations, but fewer than 15% of restaurants actually delivered [Square, Toast, HospitalityTech].

Sure, some restaurants offer loyalty programs or coupons.

But here’s the catch:
 They’re often tied to just one system—maybe the app, or only the cashier terminal.

That means:

  • Kiosk orders don’t earn loyalty points.
  • Online orders can’t apply in-store coupons.
  • Guests have no unified experience, and restaurants lose track of who’s who.

 

There’s no central command. No smart logic. Just scattered offers that don’t talk to each other.

POS vendors love to talk about “easy onboarding.”
 But in reality?

  • Most systems take 15–20 hours of shadow training per employee [NRA, 2020].
  • Staff turnover in hospitality hit 130% in 2020 [Bureau of Labor Statistics].
  • That means training every new hire costs restaurants $2,500–$3,500 onaverage, once you factor in lost hours, mentor pay, and slow productivity ramp-up [Modern Restaurant Management].

The tools aren’t intuitive. The cost is invisible—but real.

Most POS systems in 2020 were designed in the 2005–2009 era. Even if they offered some cloud features, the actual user experience was built for a different generation.

  • Cashiers had to memorize complex button sequences.
  • Managers had to bounce between multiple platforms to track inventory, coupons, loyalty, and orders.
  • Guests waited longer—not because of staffing issues, but because the system wasn’t smart enough to support fast, personalized decisions.

Meanwhile, 57% of diners said they preferred ordering from kiosks or mobile devices—but the POS couldn’t adapt [Upserve, PayCompass].

Even in 2020—and still today—many of the biggest POS companies operate on a device-selling model.

  • They force restaurants to buy proprietary hardware upfront, even if the software doesn’t fully fit.

  • They lock restaurants into using their own payment processors, cutting 2.5% to 3.5% of each transaction—often with little transparency or room to negotiate [Restaurant Dive, Nation’s Restaurant News, Toast Terms 2020].

That means less margin for the business. Less control for the operator. And zero flexibility when better tools become available.

By 2020, restaurants needed more than just a “faster register.”

They needed:

  • A unified platform that connected all ordering channels
  • Smart logic that adapts in real time
  • A system that puts guests and staff at the center—not vendors, not hardware deals

HubOrder was built to solve exactly that.

The Target
Audience

Built for the Frontline, Designed Around the Guest

HubOrder was born out of deep research with over 80 restaurant managers, dozens of frontline staff, and hundreds of real guests. From the start, we knew this wasn’t just a tool for “managers”—it was a system built to empower an entire ecosystem.

There are three key players at the heart of this platform:

1. Restaurant Managers & Operators

From regional brand executives to single-location GMs, these are the decision-makers who needed:

  • A centralized system to manage menus, coupons, loyalty, upsells, and websites across locations.
  • Real-time data without logging into five different dashboards.
  • Less time training staff, more time growing the business.

Cashiers, servers, shift leads—the people actually using the system every day. For them, we focused on:

  • Fast, intuitive workflows that work under pressure.
  • Fewer taps, fewer mistakes, and no need for a cheat sheet.
  • Features like instant menu previews, auto-suggested combos, and guided upsell prompts.

 

They’re the soul of the restaurant, and HubOrder was designed to help them shine.

Even though HubOrder wasn’t guest-facing by default, we never forgot who the end experience was for.
 From menu personalization to loyalty logic, the system anticipated:

  • What guests would want to see first, based on weather, time, preferences.
  • How to create smooth, consistent experiences across dine-in, kiosk, and mobile orders.
  • What would keep guests coming back.

HubOrder was fundamentally a B2B platform, sold to restaurant groups and franchise operators.
 But every decision we made—from menu structure to loyalty design—was informed by real guest behavior.

So while we served businesses, we designed for B2B2C impact.

This platform was built for and tested in the U.S. hospitality landscape, where:

  • Over 70% of restaurants were switching to cloud POS systems by 2020.
  • Staff churn, training overhead, and payment lock-ins remained critical pain points.
  • And guests demanded more personalization, faster service, and seamless tech.

The Solution

Built to Fit the Way Restaurants Really Work

I didn’t just want to fix a broken POS or connect a loyalty system—I wanted to help restaurants feel like everything finally works together. That’s what we set out to build with HubOrder: one flexible, intuitive system that could adapt to any restaurant group’s rhythm, no matter how fast-paced or complex.

We started by asking the hard questions. We spoke with over 80 restaurant managers—from small independents to growing franchise groups—and over 200 guests. We saw how disconnected their tools were. And more importantly, how exhausted they felt trying to stitch everything together.

So we built a solution that doesn’t just solve today’s problems—it grows with tomorrow’s plans.

Structured Like the Real World

Every restaurant group is different, but almost all of them share one reality: they’re layered. Multiple brands. Dozens of locations. Constant change.

So we designed a structure that reflects that:

  • Central brand → sub-brand → location hierarchy
  • Per-location controls for hours, tables, delivery zones, and staff
  • Unified backend that still allows local flexibility

I worked closely with the backend team to ensure managers could set things up quickly—without needing training or dev help. What used to take days, now takes minutes.

Instead of forcing restaurants to update their sites manually—or worse, not update them at all—we built a real-time website manager into HubOrder.

  • Each location gets its own page, synced with its data
  • Menus, hours, specials, and team bios update automatically
  • Changes reflect across all channels instantly: cashier, kiosk, mobile, and web

We didn’t just give them a site—we gave them back control over their digital brand.

Guests ask smart questions: “Is there dairy in this?” “How long will it take?” “Is this keto-friendly?”

And I believe quests deserve smart answers.

So we built rich food profiles, pulling in:

  • Item description and history 
  • Full ingredient lists
  • FDA nutrition data
  • Prep and cook time
  • Allergy alerts, dietary tags, and even custom flags like “Contains raw egg” or “Local favorite”

This wasn’t just about data—it was about trust. When your menu can answer questions before your server can, guests feel safe and seen.

A huge part of our work was rethinking the menu itself—not as a PDF, but as a living experience.

With HubOrder, restaurants can:

  • Create multi-channel menus (POS, kiosk, mobile, web, event-specific)
  • Schedule menus to appear at specific times, days, or holidays
  • Push updates to all devices at once—with no extra work

It’s one dashboard. One menu logic. Infinite flexibility.

I worked directly with operators frustrated by loyalty tools that didn’t talk to their POS. So we changed that.

HubOrder includes a native loyalty and coupon framework that:

  • Syncs across every ordering channel
  • Automatically rewards behavior like repeat visits or referrals, write review for food, complete user profile
  • Tracks usage and performance—all in one place

If a guest orders in person and redeems online later, it still counts. That’s loyalty that lasts.

Too many systems treat marketing as an afterthought. We built it into the foundation.

With HubOrder, managers can:

  • Trigger flows to re-engage guests who haven’t visited in a while
  • Personalize promos based on order history or seasonal trends
  • Launch campaigns without learning new tools

We didn’t need to create a whole marketing platform—we just made it finally usable inside the one they already live in.

Every restaurant’s service flow is different. And most platforms force them into one mold.

So we created a drag-and-drop flow designer where operators can shape their own ordering experience:

  • Customize steps for kiosk vs cashier vs mobile
  • Preview how it plays out in real time
  • Launch flows with zero code

It was one of our most empowering features—and I’m proud to say operators felt they had real creative control again.

This part meant a lot to me. I spent time at the registers, watching cashiers juggle speed, complexity, and unclear systems.

We completely reworked the POS experience to match how today’s staff actually think:

  • Smartphone-style interface felt instantly familiar
  • Clean, clutter-free screens focused only on what mattered
  • Every tap, every screen was designed to anticipate the next step, not bury it

We didn’t just speed things up—we made it easy to train, fun to use, and efficient under pressure. And when we heard a 19-year-old cashier say, “This is easier than Instagram,” we knew we got it right.

Everything we built was driven by one belief: the best tech is invisible.

From managers to new hires, from guest to kitchen—we designed HubOrder to:

  • Reduce errors
  • Lower training costs
  • Make each job easier without removing the human touch

Because when systems work together, people can focus on what really matters: the food, the service, and the guest in front of them.

Design + Tech

Human-Centered Strategy

At the heart of HubOrder was a simple but powerful belief: restaurant technology should feel effortless—because the job already isn’t.

I led design and strategy with that in mind, blending real-world research with deep collaboration across engineering, UI/UX, and operations. This wasn’t just another tool—it was something we built to meet people where they are.

Design Grounded in Real Use

We spent time on the floor. I spoke with 80+ restaurant managers and observed frontline staff across fast casual, QSR, and full-service formats. We mapped the frustrations—unclear buttons, multi-step flows, slow onboarding—and set out to design around them.

Key design principles:

  • Modular menu engine: Designed a flexible logic system that adapts to location, time, and service style—from dine-in to kiosk to events.
  • Smart cashier UX: We mirrored smartphone gestures and mental models so new hires could start using it without a manual.
  • Guest-forward details: Guests could view nutrition facts, allergy warnings, food prep times, and even see the chef or server on shift—all before placing an order.
  • Cross-role harmony: We designed every touchpoint—from guest to staff to manager—to work together, not against each other.

 

One of the best compliments we received came from a 22-year-old cashier who said: “This looks like something I’d use on my phone—not something from 2009.”

We didn’t build around trends—we built around restaurant realities.

  • Core Stack: I chose PHP for flexibility and rapid iteration, paired with AWS for scalability and performance. It allowed us to ship fast, adapt quickly, and stay reliable even under peak traffic.
  • POS-native logic: Engineered a multi-channel menu system that speaks fluently to kiosks, cashier POS, and online platforms—without code duplication or syncing issues.
  • Drag-and-drop backend tools: Built visual editors for order flows and promo campaigns, so teams could launch ideas without engineers.
  • Secure and compliant: Architected account-based access and permission roles—important for franchise scaling, security, and trust.
  • Nutrition and data integrations: Integrated FDA APIs for food profiles, payment gateways, and loyalty systems—bringing marketing, ops, and compliance into one engine.

Every decision had a reason. Every shortcut avoided was intentional.

  • We researched 20+ POS systems in the U.S. and identified where even the best ones fell short: UX complexity, siloed loyalty systems, forced hardware bundles.
  • We rejected predatory models that required restaurants to buy expensive hardware upfront or lose up to 3.5% in payment processing fees. That wasn’t in their best interest, and we knew it.
  • Instead, we built a system that could run on existing tablets or touchscreens, keeping costs low and flexibility high.
  • Our mobile-first UX wasn’t a trend—it was a strategic move to reduce onboarding time and tap into the digital habits of younger staff.

 

We designed multi-location web management directly into the POS system, so restaurant groups no longer had to juggle a separate CMS or marketing dashboard.

This wasn’t just about technology. It was about building the right system for the right people—one that blends empathy, utility, and future-proof thinking

My Role

I led the product vision, but also personally drove some of the most critical groundwork—from discovery interviews to interface design, system logic, and user flows.

Here’s how I contributed:

  • Led Product Discovery
     I conducted direct interviews and field research with over     80 restaurant operators and 200+ guests—across QSRs, cafés, and franchise groups. Their pain points became our blueprint.
  • Designed the System Logic
     I architected the     modular menu engine and cashier workflows, ensuring they could adapt to different restaurant types, hours, and staffing setups.
  • Mapped User Personas & Journeys
     From shift managers to Gen Z cashiers and returning guests, I built detailed persona maps and end-to-end experience flows.
  • Led UI/UX Design
     I used     Figma to prototype interfaces, collaborating with UX designers to deliver intuitive, mobile-friendly experiences that required minimal training.
  • Shaped Technical Foundations
     I worked closely with the DevOps and engineering team to ensure scalable deployment on     AWS, with flexibility for real-time data, multi-location support, and loyalty integration.

     

Team

HubOrder came to life thanks to a focused, talented team of 14 people, including:

  • 5 engineers (2 frontend, 2 backend, 1 DevOps)
  • 1 full-stack developer
  • 2 UX/UI designers
  • 1 product operations coordinator
  • 1 QA engineer
  • 3 pilot restaurant partners who helped us validate, test, and refine
  • And myself, as CPO, system architect, and product designer

 

I didn’t just oversee the work—I shaped the system, guided the research, and brought it to life screen by screen. This project was about solving a real operational gap in restaurants, and I took that mission personally.

Designing a system for restaurants sounds simple—until you sit down with twenty of them. Each one had its own rhythm, structure, and quirks. A casual brunch café doesn’t operate like a fast-paced food court, and a fine dining kitchen doesn’t think in combos or coupons.

One early challenge we faced was how varied these workflows really were. The more research we did, the clearer it became: there was no “one-size-fits-all” solution. So instead of forcing restaurants to conform, we flipped the approach—we let them build their own flows.

That decision added complexity to our roadmap. But it paid off.

 

What We Faced

  • Fragmented Hospitality Formats.

Cafés, QSRs, and full-service restaurants all had different ways of doing everything—order taking, upsells, loyalty, timing.

  • We built a modular logic system so each location could adapt menus, flows, and roles per brand or service type.
  • Legacy Resistance from Staff

Some staff—especially seasoned cashiers—were hesitant to switch from clunky POS systems they knew, even if those systems were outdated.

  • We designed a UI that looked and behaved like a smartphone app—familiar, intuitive, and low-friction.
  • Timeline vs Scope

We had a long feature wishlist (20+ modules), but shipping everything pre-launch would’ve risked stability.

  • We focused first on the essential ordering and cashier flows, then rolled out loyalty, campaign tools, and web management in phases.

 

What We Learned

  • Familiar UI accelerates adoption. Staff picked up the system fast when it mimicked what they already knew—swipes, taps, simple actions.
  • Flexibility is a feature. Letting restaurants build their own flows avoided constant custom requests and future rebuilds.
  • Connected beats flashy. Features are only valuable when they talk to each other—menus, inventory, loyalty, guests. Cohesion > gimmicks.

 

In the end, our biggest tradeoff—building flexibility instead of a rigid product—became our competitive edge. It was harder. It took longer. But it gave restaurants what they actually needed: control without complexity.

When we piloted HubOrder across a growing Italian franchise with multiple locations, the impact was immediate—and measurable.

  • Order-taking got 35% faster, which meant tables turned quicker and guests waited less, especially during weekend rushes.
  • Upsells climbed by 18%, particularly on high-margin items like drinks and desserts—because the system knew when and what to suggest.
  • Training time for new cashiers dropped by 50%. One day of practice replaced a week of trial and error—thanks to the intuitive, mobile-style UI.
  • Website traffic and online orders jumped 30% once locations were brought under a single, easy-to-manage digital brand.

And with the payment processor integration we led, we reduced credit card fees from 3.2% down to 2.1%.
 For a location making $400,000/year, that’s $4,400 saved annually—money that used to quietly vanish in fees.

On top of that, return guest visits increased by 22% within the first 3 months—driven by loyalty features, guest profiles, and smarter re-engagement flows.

 

Real Feedback from the Field:

“We used to send three emails and make five phone calls to update a menu. Now it’s one click across every store.”
 “Our cashiers picked it up faster than anything we’ve used before—it just feels natural.”

In the end, it wasn’t just about building a faster POS. It was about helping restaurants run better, sell smarter, and connect deeper—without the growing pains.

Building HubOrder wasn’t just about digitizing orders or modernizing a clunky POS. It was about listening—really listening—to restaurant teams, frontline staff, and guests who’d been underserved by outdated systems for too long.

As we rolled out the platform, new conversations emerged. Managers started asking,

“Can we personalize the experience even more?”
 “Could the system respond to a guest’s mood, preferences, or even the weather?”
 “What if the menu could evolve in real time—like it actually understood the guest?”

That curiosity sparked the next chapter.

From those real-world needs, we grew beyond just order flows.
 We began prototyping adaptive experiences, experimenting with Augma, and designing xMenu—a system that doesn’t just take orders but thinks with the guest.

HubOrder gave us the foundation.


xMenu and our AR experience platform came next—you’ll find both in my portfolio.
 Each one is rooted in the same belief: when you build with empathy and clarity, technology becomes invisible—and the human experience takes the spotlight.

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