Case Study
City Pantry
Enterprise B2B Marketplace Workflows & Order Software
Executive Summary
Architecting core B2B order software and UI systems for a scaling catering marketplace.
City Pantry is a food delivery technology brand for the workplace that capitalised on the trend towards more social workspaces, ultimately leading to its acquisition by Just Eat in 2019. Connecting independent boutique food vendors with corporate clients across London, City Pantry brought me on for an intense 6-week engagement during their second phase of product development. I designed the core UX and workflow systems for their B2B corporate catering software, encompassing complex monthly meal planning, dietary customisation engines, corporate order history management, and detailed specification handoffs for engineering.
Client Feedback
We needed a project completed quickly and to a high standard and Sky delivered. She asked all the right questions, has a fantastic understanding of the process and produced very high quality designs.
The Challenge
Streamlining multi-vendor corporate catering
Corporate office managers routinely spend hours coordinating recurring company lunches, tracking complex dietary requirements (vegan, gluten-free, allergen alerts), and obtaining executive approval across multiple vendors.
How do you design a high-velocity B2B ordering portal that simplifies complex recurring catering logistics into a seamless monthly meal-planning system?
Monthly Meal Planner & Vendor Discovery UX
I architected a multi-meal scheduling dashboard that allows office managers to build, edit, and share monthly meal plans across top London vendors:
- Smart Recommendations: Curated vendor suggestions based on team size, date, event type, and budget parameters.
- 12-Meal Monthly Schedule: A visual calendar view enabling users to preview upcoming daily menus (e.g., Simply Mediterranean, Indian Feast, Seasonal Canapes).
- Client Share & Export: One-click functionality to generate executive PDF/CSV proposals and share menu plans directly with internal decision-makers.
Order Customisation & Account Workflows
I designed the end-to-end user workflows for item customization, billing management, and post-delivery team engagement:
- Customisation Engine & Flow Logic: Mapped end-to-end user flows for dietary requirement breakdowns (gluten-free, nut allergies), packaging constraints, and real-time order price adjustments.
- Order History & Account Controls: Created intuitive order management tables displaying invoice exports (CSV/PDF) and direct vendor messaging options.
- Lifecycle Feedback Loops: Mapped team feedback collection emails and rating interfaces directly back to client account dashboards.
Development Handoff & Specifications Blueprint
To eliminate engineering ambiguity and accelerate backend deployment, I authored an exhaustive functional specifications blueprint detailing technical system behaviour, validation mechanics, and state logic:
- Package Edit Architecture: Detailed edge-case interaction states for existing, edited, and newly added catering packages within a single checkout session.
- Interaction State Rules: Defined clear behaviour guidelines for loading states, error handling, price calculations, and dietary filter validations.
- Developer Handoff Documentation: Authored authoritative UI state documentation covering modal behaviours and UI state logic for direct integration by engineering.
Strategic Takeaways
Key learnings from the build
B2B Decision Approval Loops
Providing instant CSV/PDF exports and shareable monthly plans reduces friction for office managers securing internal budget sign-offs.
Granular Dietary Mechanics
Treating dietary constraints as primary filters rather than secondary notes builds essential customer trust in food marketplace UX.
Specification Precision
Delivering exhaustive specifications documents alongside visual designs eliminates development ambiguity and accelerates shipping.
Tools & Software
What powered the build
UX Architecture & Handoff