A centralized hub that brings together data from your POS, scheduling, reservations, purchasing, and tip management systems - making restaurant management effortless.
Role:
Senior Product Designer
Canada,Toronto
Date:
2022-2023
01. Problem Space
Effective restaurant management involves coordinating multiple operations, which can often lead to losses due to inefficiencies in the process.
This is John, a restaurant owner, and he is overwhelmed with the amount of information he needs to handle.
Solution
A centralized hub that brings together data from your POS, scheduling, reservations, purchasing, and tip management systems - making restaurant management effortless.
You see? John feels happier now with Atlas Operations.
02. Design process
Research & Discovery
During the research and discovery phase, I worked closely with stakeholders to gain a deep understanding of the business goals, the product's context, and the key challenges we needed to address.
Ideation / Sketching
After gathering all the requirements and gaining a clear understanding of the product, I moved on to sketching to start bringing initial ideas to life.
Concept Presentation
Once the ideas were mocked up, I presented the wireframes to stakeholders, clearly explaining the rationale behind each design decision.
Revision
Depending on the feedback received during the concept presentation, I made adjustments to the design as needed.
3. Service Components
What is it?
ATLAS Operations has four core components that create the online service. Let’s discuss the challenges to better understand the UX behind them.
3.1 Monthly Planner
John
Owner
A powerful tool that enables leadership to clearly communicate key targets to managers and frontline operators.
Designer Note
To keep it simple and prevent overwhelming the user, the Monthly Planner uses a wizard design pattern interface that guides the business owner through setting multiple targets across different areas of the restaurant, in easy, manageable steps.
Fig 3.1 - Monthly Planner Wizard, UX Mockup
Designer Note
Since the interaction flow of the Monthly Planner is straightforward, the main challenge was effectively prioritizing information within each step to ensure the process feels intuitive and natural.
Fig 3.1.2 - Monthly Planner, Sales, UX Mockup
1
main interaction area
The main input area where the user sets their desired value for the upcoming month.
2
weekly breakdown
Atlas breaks the monthly target into weekly goals and adds last month's data to support better decisions.
3
Since factors like holidays, weekdays, and weather affect restaurant sales, users can tweak daily targets to better match real-world conditions.
4
assistant data comparison
A toggle lets users compare daily plans to last month and monthly targets to the same month last year for better decisions.
Designer Note
This information architecture was applied across all steps to keep the experience smooth and consistent.
3.2 Day-to-day activities
Ashley
Manager
After the monthly setup is completed by the restaurant owner (John), the manager (Ashley) can begin her day-to-day activities.
There are three core activities a manager needs to perform during the workday:
1. Complete the forecast (Pre Shift)
2. Open the shift
3. Close the restaurant
Once these core activities are completed, a daily report is generated.
Designer Note
Many tasks in the manager flow are time-sensitive and goal-oriented, so I designed the components to help managers know exactly when to make key decisions.
And, at the end of each day, Atlas generates a report that provides users with a comprehensive summary of the day's preformance.
3.3 Reports & Data visualization
John
Owner
Ashley
Manager
One of ATLAS's core features is report generation, which provides business owners with clear insights into their operations.
This empowers them to make more informed decisions and optimize their budgets effectively.
Designer Note
To ensure the reports are easy to understand, I thoughtfully designed a system that utilizes different types of graphs to present data clearly and effectively. The system is built around four main graph types:
3.3.1 Over-time Multiple (Linear)
3.3.2 Over-time Singular (Linear)
3.3.3 Weekly (Bars)
3.3.4 Target (Horizontal bar)
3.3.1 Over-time Multiple (Linear)
Line graphs are an excellent choice for this, as they clearly show changes over time and make it easy to compare different items
3.3.2 Over-time Singular (Linear)
Like with multiple comparisons, I chose line graphs for single values over time because they clearly show trends and changes
3.3.3 Weekly (Bars)
For daily performance, I used bar graphs to show results throughout the week. The bars are easy to compare and straightforward to understand.
Additionally, bar graphs can include multiple variables within a single day to provide more detailed insights for specific reports, such as visitors or cost of labor
Fig 3.2.3- Weekly (Bars), 1 value, UI Design
3.3.4 Target (Horizontal bar)
4.1 Design System
To ensure a consistent and efficient user experience, I built the design system from the ground up.
This approach helped maintain visual coherence and significantly reduced development time.
All components were fully documented and followed a unified spacing system.
4.2 Mobile Adaptation
Even though Atlas was designed with a desktop-first approach, many screens were adapted for mobile to ensure the product remains accessible across different platforms.
06. Outcome & Recognition
ATLAS operations has been adopted by several restaurants in Canada and used to run the business profitably. Here what the clients say:
Atlas RMS's ability to allow us and our young management team to stay on top of our key metrics has been a game changer for labour and cost management. The extra time we gained from Atlas’ automation allows us to focus on sales driving ideas and staff training rather than being stuck on a laptop poring over data!
Chemong Lodge
Fox & Fiddle
Founder
Florette
07. My Learnings
Communicate as much as possible
Good design is fundamentally about clear communication — whether it’s between you and stakeholders, between designers and developers, or between the interface and its users. The more aligned everyone is, the better the outcome
It's okay not to know - just ask
No one knows everything, and there’s no shame in that. Asking questions is how we learn and grow. When everyone is working toward a shared goal, you’re part of the team, not alone.
Design isn’t “yours”
You may have created the design, but ultimately it belongs to the people who will use it. Stay open to feedback and don’t take criticism personally. It’s part of creating something better
