Digital Ordering

Overview

Cargill’s Digital Ordering initiative unified Nosherie, Chekt, and Kitchen Blueprint into a single, connected platform that supported the entire ordering lifecycle—from discovery and selection through payment, checkout, fulfillment, and back-of-house intelligence.

A core requirement of the platform was enabling customers to pay and checkout seamlessly across devices while ensuring those transactions flowed cleanly into kitchen execution and operational insight. As design lead, I was responsible for aligning experiences, workflows, and data across consumer and operational products to deliver a cohesive, end-to-end system.

The Problem

Digital ordering frequently breaks down at checkout:

• Payment and order flows are fragmented across channels

• Kiosks, mobile apps, and in-venue tablets handle checkout differently

• Orders enter kitchens inconsistently, creating operational confusion

• Teams treat payment as a technical add-on rather than an experience

For Cargill, checkout was not optional—it was the moment where discovery turned into commitment, and where downstream systems depended on accuracy, trust, and clarity.

Platform Components

Nosherie — Discovery, Ordering, and Checkout

• Consumer discovery of new snacks and beverages

• Cart and checkout experiences with rewards and incentives

• Payment confirmation feeding directly into operational systems

Chekt — Fulfillment & Pickup Execution

• FOH and BOH coordination based on paid, confirmed orders

• Clear readiness and release states tied to successful checkout

• Tablet-based workflows optimized for speed and accuracy

Kitchen Blueprint — Intelligence & Optimization

• Visibility into paid demand, throughput, and fulfillment patterns

• Cost, waste, and labor insights grounded in real transaction data

• Signals to identify efficiency and automation opportunities

Digital Ordering connected these into a single transaction-aware platform.

My Responsibilities

• Led experience design across the end-to-end ordering and payment journey

• Defined shared principles for:

  • Checkout clarity and trust

  • Transaction consistency across devices

  • Operational alignment post-payment

• Designed cross-platform flows for:

  • Phones

  • Watches

  • In-venue tablets and kiosks

• Ensured payment and order states were:

  • Clearly communicated to customers

  • Reliably understood by FOH and BOH teams

• Partnered with product, engineering, and operations to align UX, payments, and fulfillment

Design Approach

1. Checkout as a First-Class Experience

Rather than treating payment as a handoff to a third-party flow, checkout was designed as a core product moment:

• Clear pricing, confirmation, and success states

• Immediate feedback and reassurance across devices

• Seamless transition from payment to order fulfillment

This built customer trust and reduced ambiguity for staff.

2. One Transaction, Many Surfaces

A single paid order needed to behave consistently everywhere:

• Phones: Browse, customize, pay, and track

• Watches: Glanceable confirmation and readiness updates

• Kiosks & tablets: Fast, durable checkout in high-traffic spaces

• BOH systems: Clear, unambiguous paid-order signals

Design ensured each surface reflected the same transaction truth.

3. Shared Order & Payment Lifecycle

The platform aligned all products around a unified lifecycle:

• Discovered

• Added to cart

• Paid / Confirmed

• Prepared

• Ready

• Picked up

This eliminated disconnects between checkout and execution and simplified integration across systems.

4. Designing for Integration and Scale

Payment introduced complexity—but also opportunity:

• Shared states reduced custom integrations

• Consistent UX patterns lowered training and support costs

• Modular design allowed new payment methods and devices to be added without redesign

Integration was treated as a design problem, not just an engineering task.

Outcomes & Impact

• Enabled customers to confidently pay and checkout across all channels

• Reduced friction and drop-off at the most critical moment of ordering

• Improved alignment between payment confirmation and kitchen execution

• Delivered a scalable platform for future devices and payment methods

• Positioned Cargill as a provider of end-to-end digital ordering solutions

While specific metrics remain internal, the platform materially improved checkout reliability, operational clarity, and system integration.

What This Demonstrates

• Designing payment and checkout as product experiences

• Platform-level thinking across consumer and operational systems

• Multi-device, omnichannel UX leadership

• Strong alignment between UX, transactions, and execution

• Ability to unify multiple products into a single, scalable ecosystem

Why It Matters

Digital Ordering proved that checkout is the hinge point between experience and operations.

By designing discovery, payment, fulfillment, and intelligence as one connected system, we created a platform that worked for customers, staff, and the business—at scale.