UX / UI / DESIGN SYSTEMS
Jelly
Jelly is a back-of-house management platform built to help chefs and kitchen managers increase their profit by simplifying operations. From managing recipes and calculating food costs to ordering from suppliers and tracking margins, the product puts everything a kitchen needs into one tool — keeping things simple so chefs can focus on cooking.
Hitting the ground running
Brought in as a hands-on contract designer working directly alongside the founder, the brief was clear — build out the design system in Figma and develop the first core set of user flows. Some wireframes existed for parts of the mobile experience, but the desktop product needed designing from scratch.
Working iteratively and closely with both the founder and development team, designs were shaped and refined based on direct feedback from real kitchen users throughout the engagement.
Challenge
No dekstop experience
Solution
The product only had partial mobile wireframes with no desktop designs in place. Every desktop view was designed from scratch, working closely with the founder to ensure full feature coverage across the cookbook, ordering, and supplier management sections.
Challenge
No design system
Solution
There was no centralised component library or design system to work from. A full design system was built in Figma, giving the team a consistent, scalable foundation to build and iterate from going forward.
Challenge
Complex kitchen workflows
Solution
Features like recipe creation needed to handle granular detail — custom measurements, allergens, cost calculations, VAT — without overwhelming the user. The solution was a step-by-step flow that guided users through each input clearly, with the app handling the heavy lifting like margin calculations automatically.
Hands-on from day one
Working in close proximity to the founder, the process was fast and direct — taking existing wireframes as a starting point and rapidly expanding them into full UI designs across desktop and mobile.
Designs were continuously iterated based on real user feedback from active kitchen users, ensuring every decision was grounded in how chefs actually work.
The project concluded with a thorough handover to the development team and incoming designer, including a completed design system and detailed prototypes ready for implementation.
Figma — UI design, design system, component library, and prototyping
Direct founder collaboration — daily working sessions to align on vision and functionality
Real user feedback — iterative design updates based on input from existing app users
1
Design system built from scratch
15+
core flows designed
35%
User retention
1
Designers hired
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Every flow a chef needs, in one place
From adding dishes and recipes with automatic cost and margin calculations, to managing suppliers and placing orders without leaving the app — the core flows were designed to handle the full back-of-house operation.
Chefs can customise measurements, track allergens, add expenses, and follow up with suppliers directly through built-in chat, keeping everything in one tool rather than scattered across spreadsheets and phone calls.
Thank you JJ for allowing me to jump in your team and become part of such exciting experience, seeing kitchens and chefs using the product and having direct feedback from them was super valuable.