MenuNook

MenuNook is a real-time menu platform I built for local food sellers who need a simple way to keep customers updated without managing a full e-commerce store or constantly re-exporting PDFs.

When I first built MenuNook, I built it more like a traditional dashboard. That made the product feel like something someone would sit down at a desk to manage, instead of something they could comfortably update from their phone in the middle of a busy day.

So I went back to the drawing board and redefined the experience around speed, clarity, and mobile-first use.

The Problem

Local sellers often share their menus as PDFs, but PDFs don’t stay connected to what’s actually available. Items sell out, prices change, and seasonal options come and go, leaving customers unsure whether they’re seeing the latest version.

I wanted to build something lighter than a full e-commerce store: one simple, live menu sellers can update anytime and share anywhere.

Here’s how I brought it to life.

Landing Page Clarity

Most software has very complicated landing pages filled with tons of jargon and, I guess, dreams of being in some sort of SEO Hall of Fame.

I wanted this to be quite the opposite.

This is a pretty simple product built for a clearly defined audience. And while the copy made it pretty clear who it’s for, I felt an actual product experience would work well to communicate what it is and how it works to help them make an early decision of whether this is for them.

For this I focused on a few fine details to signal care:

The time updates in real-time on the devices
Drag and drop behavior is smooth and updates in real-time
All updates happen with smooth movement
The item menu allows visitors to update sold-out status on items and their visibility

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Cookies
3 items

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip

Soft-centered cookies with deep caramel notes and dark chocolate.

$18

Lemon Sugar

Bright lemon cookies with a sparkling sugar finish.

$16

Cookies and Cream

Vanilla cookies folded with crushed sandwich cookies.

$18

Cakes
3 items

Vanilla Bean Celebration Cake

Sold out

A polished layer cake with whipped vanilla frosting.

$58

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Rich chocolate cake made for generous, easy slices.

$42

Strawberry Shortcake

Light sponge layered with cream and ripe strawberries.

$60

Pickup Boxes
3 items

Weekend Treat Box

A rotating box of weekend bakes for porch pickup.

$24

Birthday Dessert Box

Sold out

A small-format celebration box with candles included.

$28

Mini Cookie Sampler

A mixed dozen of mini cookies for gifting or sharing.

$14

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Maple Street Bakes

Cookies
Cakes
Pickup Boxes

Small-batch cookies baked fresh for weekly pickups.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip

Soft-centered cookies with deep caramel notes and dark chocolate.

$18

Lemon Sugar

Bright lemon cookies with a sparkling sugar finish.

$16

Cookies and Cream

Vanilla cookies folded with crushed sandwich cookies.

$18

Cakes

Celebration cakes and simple rounds for birthdays and gatherings.

Vanilla Bean Celebration Cake

Sold out

A polished layer cake with whipped vanilla frosting.

$58

Chocolate Sheet Cake

Rich chocolate cake made for generous, easy slices.

$42

Strawberry Shortcake

Light sponge layered with cream and ripe strawberries.

$60

Pickup Boxes

Ready-to-go assortments for gifting, weekends, and market day.

Weekend Treat Box

A rotating box of weekend bakes for porch pickup.

$24

Birthday Dessert Box

Sold out

A small-format celebration box with candles included.

$28

Mini Cookie Sampler

A mixed dozen of mini cookies for gifting or sharing.

$14

Signing In

I chose Google OAuth for a simple sign-in experience.

To contrast the originally barren, white background, I used GPT to generate an image that captured the nuances of the app in the daily life of a user.

And to set a little bit of premium feel early in the process, I animated the state change in the sign-in button.

Onboarding

After sign-in, I wanted the setup flow to stay focused on the few things a seller needs before the product becomes useful: a business name and a first menu.

The onboarding card is driven by that exact state: no business means the menu step stays locked, creating a business unlocks the next step, and creating the first menu moves the user into a completion state. The card animates between each panel and shifts focus to the final action so the flow feels guided instead of like a collection of forms.

Get Started

0 of 2

Two quick steps, then your menu is ready to build.

Focused Home Screen Loading

When I first built this app, I didn’t have onboarding. Instead, I used a progressive setup flow where the user was met with one form, then another, then another.

That created two problems. First, users had to wait while the app cascaded through checks for which data already existed and which UI state they should see. Second, the repeated form flow made the setup feel open-ended, raising the question: “How much more of this do I have to do?”

Adding onboarding was the better move. It gave the setup process a clear shape, and it let me remove the fetches that were gating each layer of the app. Now the business and menu are already saved, those requests can stay cached, and the home screen only has to fetch categories.

That means a shorter load, a more focused skeleton state, and a first home screen that feels ready instead of undecided.

Responsive Form Surfaces

User input shows up in a few different places across MenuNook: creating categories, adding items, editing details, and other focused form moments.

I wanted those interactions to feel native to the screen size instead of forcing every form into the same modal shape.

So I used the responsive dialog pattern throughout the app.

On desktop, user input opens in a centered dialog that keeps the current screen visible but focused.

On mobile, the same form content opens in a bottom drawer, which is easier to reach, easier to dismiss, and better suited to smaller screens.

Once categories and items exist, the home screen becomes the main editing surface.

I wanted ordering to feel direct instead of hidden in a settings screen, so both category cards and item rows can be moved in place. The interaction is intentionally scoped: categories reorder against other categories, while items only reorder inside the category they belong to, and only one category can be full expanded at a time.

The Menu

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip

Soft-centered cookies with deep caramel notes and dark chocolate.

$18

Lemon Sugar

Bright lemon cookies with a sparkling sugar finish.

$16

Cookies and Cream

Vanilla cookies folded with crushed sandwich cookies.

$18

Cakes
3 items

Pickup Boxes
3 items

New category

What I Learned

The biggest shift in building MenuNook was realizing that the product shouldn’t feel like software someone has to manage.

The menu is not the business. The food and the customers are. The menu just needs to stay clear, current, and easy to share.

That shaped almost every product decision: fewer setup steps, mobile-first surfaces, live updates, simple reordering, responsive forms, and a landing page that shows the product instead of over-explaining it.

This became less about replacing a PDF with a dashboard, and more about giving local sellers one calm, reliable place to keep customers informed.

MenuNook is intentionally simple: one live menu, easy to update, always ready to share.

MenuNook

The Problem