Applied Medical
Streamlining Catering Requests
Applied Medical is a global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and distributes innovative medical devices while developing in-house software to support internal operations.
My internship project focused on designing a new, internal application that streamlined catering requests and order management for Applied Medical employees and the Hospitality team.
Problem
“How might we redesign the catering request platform to simplify workflows and create a more intuitive experience for both employees and the Hospitality team?“
Outcome
Designed a modern, role-based application that streamlined catering workflows, improved usability, and supported the needs of its users. Designed 11 different user flows.
Scope: UX Design, UI Design, and Prototyping
Role: UX-UI Designer in collaboration with the MyApplied product team
Tools: Figma
Timeline: May 2026 – August 2026 (Summer Internship)
Contributions:
- Sole UX/UI Designer on project
- Led research, ideation, and high-fidelity design
- Designed 11 end to end experiences for Requester, Approver, and Administrator users
- Created interactive prototypes and detailed user flows
- Collaborated with cross-functional stakeholders to iterate and refine solutions
Final Design Walkthrough
The following videos showcase the main features of Applied Medical’s Catering Request’s platform between their primary users. Audio on!
Requestor Flow: Placing a Catering Request
Admin Flow: Managing a Catering Request
Jump to see all of the Requestor, Admin, & Approver flows
Our Goal
Simplify Workflows
Create intuitive, role-based experiences.
Improve Efficiency
Reduce manual effort and streamline administration.
Build for Scale
Design a flexible foundation for future growth.
Who We Are Designing For
Requestors: Employees creating catering requests for events
Hospitality Admin: Administrates managing and fulfilling orders
Approvers: Stakeholders reviewing and approving the requests
.
Internship Milestones
To structure this internship into clear, actionable goals, I established three key milestones to help guide my progress.
01.
Preliminary Research & Ideation
Understand the current experience, identify opportunities, and generate design directions.
02.
Design Exploration & System Expansion
Develop a scalable solution across three user roles through iterative design.
03.
Design Refinement & Validation
Optimize the experience through stakeholder feedback and product decisions.
01. Preliminary Research & Ideation
Key Activities
- Reviewed existing catering platform, workflows, & user interactions
- Conducted competitive analysis across catering platforms
- Identified usability challenges within the existing interface
- Explored initial concepts for improving layouts & information organization
Understanding the User Journey
I first studied the current user journey map to understand how each user role interacted throughout the catering request process.
General user flow for placing a catering request between the 3 user groups
Preliminary Research
Before exploring design solutions, I analyzed the existing catering platform to establish a baseline understanding of the current experience. This allowed me to identify usability challenges, understand how users interacted with the system, and determine where the greatest opportunities for improvement existed.
The admin experience presented several usability challenges:
- Dense information displays
- Extensive horizontal scrolling
- Limited organization within a spreadsheet-style interface
Original Admin View
Original Requestor View
Additionally, both the Requestor and Admin experiences used an outdated visual design that did not align with Applied Medical’s current design system.
These findings helped identify key areas of focus for the new platform, including improving information hierarchy, streamlining workflows, enhancing usability, and creating a more cohesive experience across user roles.
Idea Generation
To explore opportunities beyond the limitations of the existing platform, I analyzed commercial and local catering platforms to understand how modern catering experiences support users through the request process. This research helped identify common design patterns, features, and interaction models that could be adapted for Applied Medical’s internal application.
I evaluated platforms across three key areas:
- Layout and content organization
- Request form structure and user flows
- Catering-specific features and functionality
These insights provided inspiration for structuring the requester experience and identifying design opportunities that could be adapted to Applied Medical’s internal catering application.
Table Inspiration
In parallel, I explored opportunities to improve the Administrator experience by evaluating different approaches for managing large amounts of data.
The existing platform relied on information-heavy tables with excessive horizontal scrolling, creating opportunities to improve organization and accessibility.
Design explorations included:
- filtering
- sorting
- dropdown menus
- alternative table layouts
Together, these activities helped define the design direction for the new platform by identifying opportunities to simplify workflows, improve usability, and create a more scalable experience for future development.
02. Design Exploration &
System Expansion
Key Activities:
- Translated requirements from the URS into user flows & interface concepts
- Designed the foundational Requester, Admin, & Approver experiences
- Expanded functionality beyond the initial URS by identifying additional user needs
- Leveraged Applied Medical’s design system to create consistent & scalable interfaces
Design Strategy
I began by reviewing the URS (User Requirement Specification) to understand the Hospitality team’s goals and translate requirements into an intuitive experience. I approached the project in phases, starting with the Requester workflow to establish core patterns before expanding into more complex user experiences.
Initial Design: (Requestor)
First design without stakeholder feedback and prior to learning how to implement the design system.
Final Iteration
Final design fully implementing the design system and stakeholder feedback.
Requestor order form when placing a catering request
Based on stakeholder feedback, I identified opportunities to extend the Requester experience beyond initial submission. Adding capabilities to duplicate, edit, cancel, and manage requests gave requestors greater control over their orders while reducing unnecessary administrative effort for the Hospitality team.
Initial Design: (Requestor)
Prior to stakeholder feedback, all active and past requests were placed together. Users only had the option to preview and duplicate their requests.
Final Iteration
After multiple iterations, active and past requests were separated. Users now have the option to preview, duplicate, edit, and cancel active requests.
Requestor flow of all requests and its new functionalities
After finalizing the Requester experience, I shifted my focus to the Admin interface, which introduced significantly more workflows and data management requirements.
Design Challenge
One of the largest challenges was redesigning the Admin data tables. The existing interface prioritized displaying every available field, resulting in excessive horizontal scrolling and making it difficult for users to quickly identify important information.
“How might we preserve access to important data while creating a more efficient and scannable experience for administrators?”
Initial Design: (Admin)
During early design discussions, the Hospitality team preferred keeping all available fields visible at once. This approach aligned with their current workflow, as they relied on having complete information readily available when managing catering requests.
However, this created several usability challenges:
- Individual food items required separate rows, preventing related items within the same order from being grouped together
- Users experienced excessive horizontal scrolling to access information
- Displaying all fields at once created cognitive overload and made important details harder to identify
First Iteration of the Admin Landing Page
Rather than removing information, I explored alternative layouts that prioritized the data administrators accessed most frequently while maintaining visibility of secondary details.
Through collaboration, we identified opportunities to:
- Surface key order information on the main table.
- Move less frequently used details into a secondary “magnified view.”
- Create a more organized experience without sacrificing access to necessary data.
This resulted in a cleaner table structure that balanced the Hospitality team’s need for information visibility with a more intuitive user experience.
2nd Iteration:
Admin Data Table Incorporating Dropdown Order Summary
Through several rounds of iteration and stakeholder discussion, we identified the highest-priority fields to surface on the main table. Secondary, item-specific information was moved into expandable rows, while tertiary details were relocated to a dedicated request details view.
Final Iteration:
This approach preserved access to all necessary information while creating a cleaner, more scannable interface.
By prioritizing information based on user needs rather than displaying every field at once, we eliminated horizontal scrolling and reduced cognitive overload without sacrificing functionality.
Viewing Requestor Order Details
With the core workflows established, I shifted my focus from expanding functionality to refining the overall user experience through stakeholder feedback and iterative design improvements.
03. Design Refinement & Validation
Key Activities:
- Validated designs through stakeholder and leadership reviews
- Refined workflows, layouts, and interactions through iteration
- Prepared recommendations for future product enhancements
Admin Tool Bar
Initial Admin Tool Bar
Challenge: The Admin toolbar contained numerous low-frequency actions, creating visual clutter and competing with the page’s primary content.
Iteration: I consolidated secondary actions into a kebab menu and dedicated settings page, keeping the most frequently used actions visible while preserving access to less common functionality.
Outcome: The refined toolbar improved visual hierarchy, reduced cognitive load, and kept essential actions easily accessible.
Newly Designed Tool Bar, Kebab Menu, and Settings Page
Printing
Initial Overview
Challenge: The Hospitality team relied on printed overview sheets to coordinate work across the Kitchen and Logistics teams. Because each team used the information differently, a single print layout did not effectively support every workflow.
Iteration: My initial design consolidated all catering orders into a single print view. While the Logistics team found this format useful, feedback from the Kitchen team revealed that they needed orders organized chronologically by meal time rather than grouped by meal type.
1st Iteration
Selection for different print views
Outcome: In response to this feedback, I designed multiple print views tailored to each team’s workflow. This allowed each department to access the information in the format most relevant to their responsibilities, improving efficiency while maintaining a consistent underlying data set.
“Print by Time” view (Better for Kitchen Staff)
“Print by Order” view (Better for Logistics Team)
The final solution balanced the Stakeholder goals with usability, resulting in a streamlined experience that can continue to evolve as the platform grows.
View All Design Flows
The following buttons will navigate you to different google files showing all of the individual flows created for this project.
Final Outcome:
The final designs were approved by stakeholders and are currently being developed for implementation within Applied Medical’s internal platforms.
- Established a foundation for future feature expansion
- Stakeholder-approved design delivered for development
- Designed a scalable experience for three distinct user groups
- Streamlined internal catering request workflows
Thanks for Reading!
Let’s Get in Touch
madiloyd@icloud.com