heykantine!
UX/UI Design | Responsive Design | UX Research | Email Templates
heykantine! is a digital lunch platform for companies without their own canteen. Employees can easily
pre-order their favorite meals from curated local caterers, while employers set daily subsidies and get one simple invoice. Caterers receive well-structured orders, labels and delivery summaries, making operations smoother. The result: happier employees, less admin work for HR and consistent quality food every day.
Discover
What was the problem?
Companies without their own canteens struggled to provide employees with good, flexible lunch options. Ordering food was messy and time-consuming for HR or office managers and employees had little choice or transparency in what they could order.
For whom?
Employees in medium and large companies (100+ people) who wanted easy, tasty and healthy lunches; workplace managers and HR teams who needed a low-effort way to offer meal benefits and caterers who wanted predictable, well-organized orders.
Research
We conducted a research study using Lyssna, where we recruited 50 participants to answer a structured catalogue of questions about workplace catering habits and preferences. The goal was to validate assumptions, uncover frustrations and identify opportunities for improvement.
Research Questions
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72% preferred weekly planning with daily flexibility
18% wanted only same-day ordering, while 10% were fine with monthly planning
This confirmed the weekly calendar with daily choices as the most intuitive model.
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65%: Dietary tags (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free)
58%: Allergen info
47%: High-quality images of the dish
Reinforced the need for clear labeling and consistent photos to build trust.
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54%: Lack of choice / repetitive menus
38%: Confusing or hidden pricing
31%: No easy way to cancel or adjust orders
This highlighted that transparency and flexibility were top priorities.
Competitor Insights
For our competitor analysis, we looked at Smunch, even though it no longer acted as a direct competitor since the company had to shut down shortly before heykantine! launched. Insights from their former CEO proved highly valuable, highlighting operational challenges, customer behaviors and pitfalls that informed our strategy and helped us design a more scalable, resilient solution.
Insights
Last-minute ordering: employees often placed orders very late, especially on Mondays
Dietary labeling: clear tags for vegan, vegetarian and allergens are essential
Subsidy model: companies prefer fixed daily subsidies over percentages for tax benefits
Caterer needs: reliable minimum orders and simple prep instructions are crucial
Pain Points
Operations-heavy model: costly equipment and large driver fleet made scaling difficult
Complex ordering: too many menu options and confusing adjustments frustrated users
Weak retention: limited account management touchpoints led to churn
Define
Goal
Build a platform where employees can pre-order lunches in seconds, companies can set daily subsidies and caterers receive well-structured orders with minimal back-and-forth.
KPIs
Reduce ordering time to under 2 minutes
Ensure >95% of orders are delivered on time
Achieve high employee satisfaction (average 4.5/5 rating)
Cut admin work for HR teams by at least 50%
Out of scope
Gamification and social features
Letting companies micromanage caterer selection (kept simple and automated)
Persona Development
From my research, I noticed patterns among employees who used or were likely to use heykantine!. They were motivated by the convenience of ordering lunch at work and appreciated variety, but were often held back by unclear subsidies, limited dietary labeling and the hassle of traditional office catering. I also found that employees who worked hybrid schedules and valued healthy eating were more likely to actively engage with the platform.
So I created the persona, Anna Schmidt.
User Persona: Anna Schmidt
Age: 29
Occupation: Marketing Manager at a mid-sized tech company
Work Style: Hybrid (3 days in the office, 2 days remote)
Location: Berlin
Goals:
Eat healthy and varied meals during office days
Save time by avoiding long lunch breaks outside
Stay within the daily company subsidy
Frustrations:
Limited dietary options in traditional office catering
Confusion around what is covered by the employer subsidy
Food waste from pre-ordered meals that don’t match her schedule
Behaviors:
Plans her week ahead, but values flexibility to change orders
Open to trying new caterers and dishes, especially vegetarian/vegan
Likes quick, mobile-friendly ordering experiences
Develop
User Flow
First Wireframes
Employer dashboard: created a simple daily dashboard for office managers → track orders at a glance and download reports for deeper insights.
Caterer dashboard: built a clear portal → track daily orders easily and create tailored offers for upcoming weeks.
Email communication: created 25 transactional templates → covered every step from invites and confirmations to reminders and cancellations.
Feedback
Based on HR feedback we prioritized discretion → managers only see aggregated usage data and subsidy spend, but never which individual employees ordered which dishes.
Caterers requested printable labels → we added labels with QR codes for ratings, plus delivery overview PDFs showing each dish per employee to ensure accurate fulfillment.
Iterations
Menu display: compared list and calendar layouts → selected a weekly calendar with daily dish tiles for better clarity.
Subsidy display: tested different formats → kept a simple daily budget bar so users see instantly what’s covered.
Refined flows: streamlined the adjustment process and introduced unified cut-off times to reduce complexity for users.
Checkout logic: one of the toughest challenges → designed a single consistent layout that covers free orders, partial payments, wallet credits and adjustments.
Dish ratings: after delivery users can rate their meals → tested different formats and kept a low-effort flow to maximize feedback.
Deliver
What was the result and impact?
Weekly planning and daily choices for employees
Stripe payments (cards, PayPal, Apple/Google Pay)
Flexible employer subsidies
Caterer dashboards with daily orders, labels and summaries
Automated email notifications for all three groups
First internal test launched in 3 months → successful first orders within days
Ordering time dropped from ~10 minutes to <2 minutes
Employee satisfaction >4.5/5 in early surveys
HR workload significantly reduced through automation
Simplicity worked best with one checkout model for all cases. Clear labels, tooltips and emails built trust and automation saved time while making the platform scalable.
