Kiosk for College Café
College Café
At the heart of our college campus sits a cozy little café run by a warm-hearted couple, a place that's become a familiar and comforting spot for students to grab a bite, chat, and unwind between classes. Their warm presence and the café’s simplicity give it a charm of its own — one that naturally drew my attention.
Customer side
The current menu lacks visual representation of food items, making it unclear what’s included at a given price.
Vendor side
The café owners rely on a manual system—writing down customer names and orders on paper and using a standard UPI app to keep track of payments, leading to confusion and inefficiencies. During busy hours, the process becomes chaotic.
To address the existing issues, I designed a WebApp-based kiosk interface for customers and a dedicated mobile application for the vendors. The WebApp kiosk allows students to seamlessly browse a visually-rich menu, select items, customize orders, and make digital payments—all in one place. On the other hand, the vendor app streamlines order management by displaying incoming orders in real time, associating them with payment status, and providing a clear tracking mechanism, thus eliminating the need for manual entry and reducing peak-hour chaos.
Customer Side
Provide a simple and intuitive interface where users can view menu items with visuals, place orders effortlessly, and complete payments with ease.
Vendor Side
Enable quick access to incoming orders and automate payment confirmation to reduce manual effort and errors.
Personal Learning Objective
Use this real-world challenge as an opportunity to apply and enhance my understanding of UI/UX design principles through hands-on experience.
I conducted in-person interviews with both the café vendors and customers across various user categories to gain diverse perspectives.
User Personas
Vendors
Aditi Somvanshi
Age: 38 years
Qualification: B.E. in Information Technology
I handle inventory and manage most of the food preparation. During peak hours, I also take orders directly. Balancing cooking while tracking what’s been ordered becomes overwhelming when multiple students are waiting.
Atul Somvanshi
Age: 40 years
Qualification: B.E. in Electrical
I look after procurement, make beverages, and close the day with account tallies. I also take orders when needed, but keeping track—especially with mixed payment modes and multiple items—is tough during rush hours.
Shared Challenges
We take orders based on who’s available, which becomes chaotic during peak times. UPI tracking is tricky—many students pay using IDs with their parents’ names, and cash orders rely on our memory. Since we can’t cook all items at once, we serve them in parts to manage gas and electricity usage. When students ask what a dish looks like, we try to explain, but they often wait to see someone else’s order, which slows everything down—and we don’t always have time to assist while prepping.
Customers
Ishan Garud
Student in 1st Year
Being new to college, I ordered a veg roll assuming it was like a frankie. It turned out to be a stuffed bun—tasty, but not what I expected. If there had been a photo or description, I would’ve chosen something else, maybe a pizza.
Vinay Deshmukh
Student in 2nd Year
I’ve gotten used to the menu and the café staff, who are friendly. But during busy hours, they sometimes write the wrong name with my order, which leads to mix-ups. It’s a bit frustrating when I’m in a rush between lectures.
Shriya Deshpande
Student in 3rd Year
I love the food and often hang out with friends here. But I’ve noticed the couple running the café struggle with bulk orders. Sometimes it leads to delays and we end up cancelling items due to confusion.
Isha Patil
Student in 4th Year
I’m a regular and usually get my cold coffee without saying much—they know me. But once, someone else took my order because it was just written down by name. I prefer paying in cash, so it got taken before I could even collect it.
A lightweight WebApp can be designed, accessible through QR code scanning, where students can view the menu and place their orders directly, without the need for app installation or phone storage concerns.
The WebApp would be a great choice as it is platform-independent, ensuring it works smoothly across different devices and operating systems.
In the menu we can include both visual and textual descriptions of items, along with estimated preparation times, to help customers make quick and informed decisions.
A separate vendor-side application can be developed to help track orders, manage payments, and streamline the preparation process
All customer orders and payments can be digitally recorded, minimizing manual errors and improving operational accuracy.
A verification method for cash payments can be introduced, to prevent order theft and ensure secure handling of non-digital transactions.
I usually do this on pen and paper, so here are some of the things I jot down during my process
Onboarding
Menu
Ordering
Checkout
Customer Review
Vendor Side
Home Page
Order Type
Dashboard
Hamburger Menu
TYPOGRAPHY
COLOR PALETTE
Testing done on this prototype
Shared Perspective from Vendors
The interface is intuitive and easy to understand. We had a proposal before from a second-year student, but it was too complex. This one feels just right — simple yet effective. We’re genuinely interested in getting this developed soon, it would be a big help. Also, we’d love to integrate a loyalty system for our regulars; your solution makes that very achievable.
Ishan Garud
Student in 1st Year
The moment I saw the product listings, the visuals and clear descriptions caught my attention — something I always look for when ordering. That detail really sets the tone for a quality experience.
Vinay Deshmukh
Student in 2nd Year
The interface is super convenient! Since it’s a web app, I can just save the link, place my order after class, and pick it up right away. No waiting, no hassle — exactly what students need!
Shriya Deshpande
Student in 3rd Year
You've done an excellent job — clean and functional! Just a small suggestion: the UI could be polished a bit more. What I particularly love is how this system ensures fairness. No more last-minute add-ons from friends jumping the queue — everyone gets their turn.
Isha Patil
Student in 4th Year
Incredible thinking! You've addressed an issue nobody really talked about. However, I’d like to point out a concern — during peak hours, someone might misuse the OTP-based cash system. But overall, this is a thoughtful and much-needed innovation. Kudos to you!
Base App for Small Vendors: A Smarter Alternative to Coupons
A foundational version of this application can be developed specifically for small food outlets, tea stalls, or local snack shops. It offers a significant advantage over traditional paper-based coupon systems by digitizing the ordering and payment process. Such a kiosk or digital interface would be highly beneficial for vendors with limited access to technology or minimal staffing. It can help boost their sales, automate routine operations, and provide a reliable method for tracking income — reducing manual errors and improving financial clarity
Improving Cash Payment Validation: Beyond OTP Systems
The proposed OTP-based system for validating cash transactions adds a layer of security, but it may not be foolproof, especially during peak hours. In high rush scenarios, a customer might falsely claim to have paid by simply sharing the OTP. Future iterations could explore more secure alternatives — such as staff-side OTP generation, timestamped QR confirmations, or dual-verification mechanisms — to ensure validation is robust without slowing down the service.
Optimized Vendor Interface for Tablets/iPads
The current interface is accessible via mobile devices; however, the smaller screen often feels cramped for vendor-side functionalities like order tracking, revenue monitoring, or editing offers. A dedicated tablet or iPad version would greatly improve usability. It would provide a more spacious and intuitive interface, helping vendors efficiently manage operations without constantly switching tabs or squinting at small text.
Discounted Packs for Regular Customers: Loyalty-Driven Offers
This is provided by vendor as some customer come on regular basis so we could have a discounted pack offer where the customer could buy ₹800 pack which includes 10 pizzas which normally costs ₹900 and could redeem for 10 visits.
