Mad Mobile’s original online ordering product was dated, clunky, and tried to compete with aggregators like DoorDash by pulling multiple restaurants into one centralized platform. But that approach didn’t give restaurants much control—and the UX didn’t meet the expectations of modern users.

The new direction was clear: create a white-label online ordering experience that restaurants could use on their own websites. It had to feel polished, easy to use, and completely flexible—whether a brand had a full library of food photos and custom assets or just a basic menu. The challenge was designing something that could adapt to any type of restaurant, while still looking great and delivering a smooth, reliable ordering experience for end users.

I started by diving into the current product, identifying where users were dropping off and where the experience felt outdated or overly complex. From there, I worked with product and engineering teams to reframe the goal: build a modular, scalable ordering system that could be skinned and embedded anywhere.

Key parts of the process included:

• Redesigning the information architecture and core flows—browsing, menu navigation, customization, and checkout
• Creating a flexible UI system that handled varying levels of content, from rich photography to minimal text
• Implementing and customizing a Shadcn-based design system, optimized for Tailwind CSS and faster development
• Collaborating with engineering to ensure seamless handoff and scalable implementation
• Iterating on real menus and use cases from a wide range of restaurants—from fast casual to full service—to pressure-test flexibility
• Documenting reusable components and logic so teams could easily spin up tailored experiences for different clients

The redesign was a major success. Restaurant partners loved how the new experience felt modern, fast, and easy to use—not just for their customers, but for their internal teams as well.

The new white-label model gave brands full control over their digital presence, without sacrificing usability or polish. It was so well received that it became the foundation for a self-service kiosk product, extending the same ordering logic and UI into an in-store experience.

Internally, the introduction of a centralized design system sped up future development and improved design consistency across the entire CAKE product suite. This project marked a significant step forward in modernizing the platform and helped position Mad Mobile for broader adoption across restaurant partners.