Syrnikiss by Leo
Mobile website for breakfast delivery
- Role
- UX research, UX/UI design, build
- Platform
- Taplink
- Client
- Small breakfast business
- Focus
- Designing within strict budget and platform constraints
Overview
Online ordering experience for a specialty breakfast business
A mobile ordering experience for a small business making unique handmade cheese pancakes.
The main business challenge was to create a cost-effective digital menu that would be inexpensive to develop and maintain, while still providing a convenient experience for customers.
Because the business had limited resources, the project required finding a balance between business needs, platform limitations, development cost and user experience.
Before
Before the project, the menu was shared manually with customers. This created several problems:
- the owner had to send the menu to every new customer again and again;
- customers had to message the business to find product information;
- ordering depended heavily on manual communication;
- there was no convenient way to share the menu publicly on social media.
The business needed a simple digital solution, but a custom website was outside the desired budget.
I explored two development approaches and presented their advantages and disadvantages to the business owner. Based on the comparison, we decided to build the product with Taplink, which gave the best balance between cost, development time and the required functionality.
Design process
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Briefing
I started by discussing the business model, target customers, ordering process, budget and the owner’s expectations for the digital product. The key question was: how can we make ordering easier for customers without creating an expensive product for a small business to maintain?
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Exploring solutions
I compared two possible development approaches against the project’s constraints. Rather than choosing a technically more sophisticated solution by default, I weighed the value the product would provide against its development and maintenance cost. The final decision was to use Taplink.
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Research
Despite the limited budget, research was essential for informed design decisions: analysis of relevant digital products and best practices, research into the emotions we wanted the experience to create, interviews with real customers and analysis of the existing ordering process. It showed not only what information users needed, but also how they naturally approached ordering.
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Prototyping
The platform imposed several interaction limitations, so I explored different ways to structure the ordering flow before committing to the final interface.
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Design
I translated the research findings into visual and interaction design, keeping the interface simple and easy to scan on mobile devices.
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Development
The final solution was implemented in Taplink.
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Testing & iteration
I tested the ordering flow with users and compared alternative interaction patterns before launching the final version.
Research
There was no direct competitor to learn from, so references came from neighbouring categories.
Challenge
There were no businesses doing exactly the same thing. Home-food and meal-plan delivery services exist, but none of them focus on breakfasts, let alone on syrniki. With no ready-made product to benchmark against, I had to separate where to look for interaction patterns from where to look for the mood.
Ordering patterns
For the menu structure and ordering flow, I studied home-food and meal-plan delivery services: how they present products, ingredients and portions, and how customers place an order.
Visual references
For the visual style, I chose craft bakeries. Their atmosphere came closest to the emotions the owner wanted the brand to evoke: warmth, care and handmade quality.
Typography
The display typeface is used for headings only. It supports the warm, crafted feel and adds a premium touch: the goal was for customers to feel they are choosing something special, wholesome breakfasts with clean ingredients. Body text is set in Raleway so the menu stays easy to read on a phone.
Color
Warm, soft tones that feel cosy and homely. The palette also echoes the colour of freshly cooked syrniki and of the brand’s signature products, syrniki and sauce with halva, made from the chef’s own recipes.
- F9F3E7
- 26211D
- 69595C
- EAE1D2
Designing within platform constraints
One of the main UX decisions was how users should place their order. Because of Taplink’s limitations, the limited budget and the legal aspects of accepting payments online, I explored two alternatives.
Option A
One button after the whole menu
A single order button was placed after all menu items.
Goal: keep the interface visually clean and avoid overwhelming users with too many buttons.
Option B Chosen
An order button for every item
Each menu item had its own ordering action.
Goal: make ordering faster and reduce the amount of interaction required from users.
Result
I built both versions and tested the ordering scenario with users.
Users found the second option significantly easier to understand and more convenient to use. Although the first option looked cleaner, the second one better supported the task users were actually trying to accomplish.
Visual simplicity does not always equal interaction simplicity.
5 / 6
users found Option B clearer and more convenient, so we chose this interaction pattern.
Designing from user behaviour
Customers frequently took screenshots of products and sent them to the business when placing an order.
The product did not stop evolving after launch.
After several months of use, I analysed how customers were actually interacting with the menu and discovered an important behavioural pattern.
Later, the business introduced a new category of sugar-free products. This created a UX challenge: many products were almost identical to existing ones, the main difference being the presence or absence of sugar.
I could have created a completely separate visual system for the new category. However, based on the existing user behaviour, I decided to preserve the established visual structure and introduce a clear sugar-free label next to the relevant products.
This allowed users to:
- recognise familiar products immediately;
- tell sugar-free options apart without learning a new interface;
- keep using the same screenshot-based ordering behaviour;
- avoid unnecessary cognitive effort.
Balancing user & business needs
For users
- View the full product range independently
- Get product information without contacting the business
- Find products quickly
- Order through a familiar and straightforward process
- Easily distinguish sugar-free products
For the business
- Less repetitive communication with customers
- Partly automated ordering
- A menu available to new customers at any time
- One link across social media and other channels
- Low development and maintenance costs
Final visuals
Long-term impact
After launch, the website became the main entry point for new orders, and the effect held over time.
×2.5
more orders on average within two months of launch. Order volume then stayed at the new level.
+1
item per order on average, which raised the average order value.
2
new regular customers who came through the link, each ordering about 2.5 times a week.
Why it worked
- Potential customers could see the full range at any time and start an order without waiting for a reply.
- Customer surveys after launch showed higher trust in the business, which made it easier to decide to buy.
- The full menu and clear navigation encouraged people to add more items to their order.
- Customers asked noticeably fewer questions in direct messages and needed fewer clarifications.
A wholesale partnership
Before the website, the business had tried to partner with a local coffee shop, but was not taken seriously.
After launch, the owner made a second attempt and sent the website link as the menu. The coffee shop agreed to test the products, and after a successful test signed a contract: it now receives a batch of frozen ready-made syrniki twice a week.
Future opportunities
If the business keeps growing and the current solution reaches its limits, the next step could be a dedicated mobile app with ordering, online payment and delivery settings.
My role would start with validating demand and the new flows with existing customers.
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