Build sites, menus, and operations in one place
OpenTender Restaurant Manager
COMPANY
CheckMate
ROLE
Product Design
EXPERTISE
UX/UI Design
YEAR
2020
Why owners struggled
Many owners were still juggling scattered tools—and even pen-and-paper workflows—for schedules, menu changes, and orders. That fragmentation slowed updates, created inconsistencies, and made onboarding new staff painful. OpenTender brings everything into a single Admin so teams publish faster, keep menus consistent, and cut onboarding time.
Timeline (~1 year)
From early design exploration and business immersion to understand the tool, through adapting a pre-built design system, wireframing and prototyping, iterative testing, and customer-support training with internal playbooks—culminating in an MVP launch.
How this platform started
OpenTender began as an engineer-built MVP to prove ordering and menu management for small restaurants. As adoption grew, owners tried to run daily operations from it—but the UI was cluttered, navigation was inconsistent, content wasn’t clearly separated, and key actions lacked in-place editing or drag-and-drop. The result: long learning curves, frequent errors, and some teams reverting to pen-and-paper to finish tasks during rush hours.
A web platform where owners and managers can:
Create and publish a branded website with live menu sync
Manage menus, modifiers, pricing, and availability across locations
Oversee daily operations: store hours, outages, orders, roles & permissions
Scale reliably with a reusable design system and clear status states
Information architecture that reduces hops
Admin → Overview · Locations · Menus · Orders · Customers · Settings
Locations → Hours · Availability · Staff & Roles · Integrations
Menus → Catalog · Modifiers · Pricing Rules · Publishing Targets
Orders → Live Queue · SLA States · Issue Triage
Design System highlights
Tokenized theming: Dark-first palette with accessible color ramps
Composable primitives: Button, Input, Select, Badge, Table, Empty-state, Toast.
Data-dense patterns: Split-pane editors, sticky action bars, inline validation.
State you can trust: Clear loading/saving/failed states and undo for risky actions.
Key flows I redesigned
Publish a site in minutes: Choose a template → connect domain → sync locations → publish
Menu at scale: Draft changes → test in preview → publish to selected stores and channels.
Role-based control: Presets for Owner/Manager/Staff; custom permissions for enterprises.
Operational resilience: Quick “86 item,” outage toggles, and store-hours exceptions.
Websites, menus, and operations—managed in one place
Website Setup (launch in minutes)
Pick a template, connect domain, sync locations—site goes live with the menu system.
Menu Editor (scale without chaos)
Searchable, filterable catalog with inline status chips and bulk actions—plus split-pane editing with Draft → Preview → Publish, sticky actions, and validation for modifiers, pricing, and allergens.
Stores & Locations (management)
Central directory for locations: hours & exceptions, service areas, pickup/delivery settings, staff assignments, and integrations—managed in one place.
Light & Dark Modes (Adaptable by context)
Token-based theming with accessible contrast; components auto-adjust (chips, charts, tables) for readability in bright BOH kiosks or night shifts.
Results & Conclusion
A cross-functional push took OpenTender from Figma to production, equipped internal teams to support restaurants, and delivered measurable gains in speed, quality, and adoption.
From Figma to production
High-fidelity designs shipped to a live app in close partnership with engineering.
Cross-device/browser QA with accessibility and performance checks to keep interactions smooth.
Enablement that sticks
Trained Checkmate teams to support restaurant owners, with concise SOPs and walkthroughs for common tasks.
Impact at launch
Owners gained a single, reliable place to build sites, manage menus, and run day-to-day ops—strengthening their online presence and making updates faster and more consistent.