ux & visual design

|

design systems

|

digital transformation

Culver's

I USED

AI

ON THIS

designing a digital menu system

I turned a static, cluttered board into a dynamic digital experience.

ux & visual design

|

design systems

|

digital transformation

Culver's

I USED

AI

ON THIS

designing a digital menu system

I turned a static, cluttered board into a dynamic digital experience.

3.6 billion

in global sales per year

3.6 billion

in global sales per year

3.6 billion

in global sales per year

90%

faster content update cycle vs. the legacy paper process

90%

faster content update cycle vs. the legacy paper process

90%

faster content update cycle vs. the legacy paper process

3%

Culver's targeted sales lift through new digital menu system

3%

Culver's targeted sales lift through new digital menu system

3%

Culver's targeted sales lift through new digital menu system

background

a static paper menu from long ago

Culver’s paper menu board designs hadn’t been touched in nearly 10 years and any updates easily took 5 to 8 weeks. it was easy to look at and hard to actually read. the whole system needed an overhaul to keep up with the changes in today’s 1,000+ locations. i owned the ux and visual design of the digital menu boards that guests see.

approach

rebuild the system, not just the menu

we took Culver’s menu boards and rebuilt the whole thing into a dynamic system that updates overnight. i owned UX and visual design end to end. here’s how it went:

1

we watched and we learned

the broader team (shoutout team!!) ran 12 site visits and talked to 28 guests at high-volume locations to see how people actually order, and where the board helped or got in the way.

we learned that indoor guests spend about two full minutes just reading the board before they order; at the drive-through, they’re more stressed about the time they’re taking to order and wait.

it’s the same menu, but two different experiences for two different guests.

2

we defined

that split gave us two personas to design for:

  1. the local

knows exactly what they want and orders the same thing every time. not opposed to trying something new, but new things are “hard to find.”

  1. the new visitor

doesn’t know where to start or what’s good, and gets “overwhelmed easily” by the choice overload on the existing menu.

3

i designed

i built two menu layouts and three visual themes, and put them in front of stakeholders with the tradeoffs laid out:

  1. Bookends reads the way you actually build a meal, left to right: entrees → sides → drinks → desserts. it anchors the two best sellers, Burgers and Custard, at either end, so moving from one to the other pulls your eye through everything in the middle.

  1. Middle-out stays closer to the original layout, so it’s more familiar to Locals (and a little faster, since they don’t have to read the whole thing), and it sits closer to the cashier stations centered under the boards.

i built two menu layouts and three visual themes, and put them in front of stakeholders with the tradeoffs laid out:

  1. bookends reads the way you actually build a meal, left to right: entrees → sides → drinks → desserts. it anchors the two best sellers, Burgers and Custard, at either end, so moving from one to the other pulls your eye through everything in the middle.

  1. Middle-out stays closer to the original layout, so it’s more familiar to Locals (and a little faster, since they don’t have to read the whole thing), and it sits closer to the cashier stations centered under the boards.

the client chose Middle-out to start with, a little wary of changing things up too much; we scoped a hypothesis so they could test after handoff.

Bookends

bookends

Middle-out

middle-out

4

i built

then the fun part!! i built the design system underneath it all: a flexible grid that lets any location update without anyone touching a layout, a three-tier modular component pattern, and a type, color, and space hierarchy built to be read from across the room (or from a car).

impact

pilots are live, with rollout to all 1000+ locations by 2029

the first pilots went live in October 2025, with a phased nationwide rollout through 2029 handled by our implementation partners.

my part was the design system underneath it: a menu system built so any location can update without rebuilding a layout, which is what turns a 5-to-8-week update cycle into something that can happen overnight. whether clearer ordering actually lifts sales is the open question we planned to answer with further testing post-launch.

Culver's Digital Menu Board

Hyundai Canada's redesign