NextBite
A Michigan restaurant’s own ordering system — designed and built with Claude.
A Michigan restaurant’s own ordering system
NextBite serves smash burgers, wings and peri chicken in Warren, Michigan. I designed and built its own ordering system — a customer website, a tablet app that rings in the kitchen and an admin for the owner — working with Claude from the first sketch to working code.
What the restaurant needed
Guests should order directly, and the kitchen should handle every order in one place — quickly, and without mistakes.
Research with Claude as a partner
I used Claude to speed up research while keeping every decision grounded in how a small, busy kitchen really works.
From sketch to working product
With Claude, paper ideas became working prototypes the same day, so every flow was tried on a real phone and tablet before it was final.
- 1SketchPaper flows for guests, the kitchen and the owner.
- 2PrototypeClaude turned sketches into clickable screens the same day.
- 3TestReal orders on a real tablet with the owner and staff.
- 4BuildOne web app with live data shared by all three sides.
- 5Launch prepPayments, hosting and the nextbites.co domain come next.
A menu that makes you hungry
A bold, dark website with the full menu and photos, allergen and diet filters, hours that show whether the kitchen is open now, free delivery on orders over $200 within 10 miles, and rewards for regulars.
The whole homepage — it scrolls by itself. Click to open it full size.
Order in a minute
Pick a dish and its options while allergens update live, add a side, pay with Apple Pay, then follow the order from Received to Ready.
When an order comes in, the kitchen hears it
A new order fills the tablet and plays a bright chime that repeats until someone answers — loud enough for a busy kitchen. One tap accepts it, ready times move by 5 minutes, and each order slides from New to Preparing to Ready. If nobody answers within a minute, the order cancels and the guest is refunded.
Out of stock? Ask, don’t cancel
When a dish runs out, staff suggest a swap at the same price. The guest approves it on their phone within a minute — or removes it and gets a refund. No phone calls.
The kitchen suggests, the guest decides.
Everything the owner needs, in one place
Orders by date with daily sales, the menu and photos, checkout add-ons, deals and coupons, catering requests, customers and rewards, and staff schedules with payroll.
Built, tested and ready to launch
The whole system works end to end in test mode. Real payments, hosting and the nextbites.co domain are the last steps before it goes live.
What I learned
Working with Claude changed my role from handing off designs to shipping a product. AI made research, prototyping and building much faster, but the important calls were still design calls: what a cook can read at arm’s length, how loud an alert should be, and what to do when something runs out. I now prototype in code from day one and put it in front of real people sooner.
