ASH Restaurant Admin
A restaurant admin dashboard built so staff stop losing time (and money) to a confusing system.
Summary
ASH is a restaurant admin dashboard for managing orders, inventory, tables, and earnings, designed to remove confusion during the exact moments a restaurant can least afford it, rush hours.
Result: A dashboard staff could actually use under pressure, cutting the clicks, guesswork, and freezing that were previously costing the business time, accuracy, and staff patience.
Role: UI/UX Designer
Timeline: 4 Weeks
Focus Areas: User Flows, Interaction Design, UI, System Architecture
The Problem
Restaurant staff work under real-time pressure with zero patience for complexity. Real complaints before this redesign:
"Too many clicks to find simple info."
"I don't know where each order is."
"The dashboard freezes during rush hours."
Every extra second spent hunting for information was a mistake waiting to happen, or a customer waiting too long.
Research & Insights
Staff rely on quick-glance data, not deep menus → speed beats depth when you're mid-rush
Order status must always be visible → invisible status is where mistakes start
Table management needs to be direct and color-coded → color does the thinking so staff don't have to
Non-technical staff update inventory → the system had to work for someone who's never used a dashboard before
Clear "View → Act → Confirm" flow reduces mistakes → structure prevents the errors that cost the business money
The Solution
Clean card-based layout → Outcome: let staff scan and act in seconds instead of hunting through menus
Day / Week / Month tab switching → Outcome: gave managers the view they needed without cluttering the daily staff view
Real-time updates for earnings, orders, tables → Outcome: removed the "where is this order" confusion that was slowing service down
Clear separation of Orders, Inventory, Customers, Menu → Outcome: stopped staff from clicking through the wrong section during a rush
One-tap actions for adding meals, updating status, assigning tables → Outcome: cut the exact multi-click friction that was originally the top staff complaint
