Pizza Hut

A mobile AR tool that makes oven cleaning more efficient

Research

Strategy

Design

Prototyping

AR

Problem

Pizza Hut needs a more efficient way to train employees on how to clean ovens in order to save time and increase pizza quality.

Background

Pizza Hut ovens need bi-weekly cleaning to ensure top taste and quality, a task that's historically tedious and costly with extensive training. I collaborated with their innovation team to design a mobile AR feature that guides employees through oven cleaning and reassembly without training, saving time and money.

Timeline
3 Months
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
2 x Designers 3 x Engineers 1 x Head of Innovation 1 x Head of AR/VR
Outcome

Time of oven cleaning decreased by 45% and reassembly accuracy increased by 23%.

Pizza Hut

A mobile AR tool that makes oven cleaning more efficient

Research

Strategy

Design

Prototyping

AR

Problem

Pizza Hut needs a more efficient way to train employees on how to clean ovens in order to save time and increase pizza quality.

Background

Pizza Hut ovens need bi-weekly cleaning to ensure top taste and quality, a task that's historically tedious and costly with extensive training. I collaborated with their innovation team to design a mobile AR feature that guides employees through oven cleaning and reassembly without training, saving time and money.

Timeline
3 Months
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
2 x Designers 3 x Engineers 1 x Head of Innovation 1 x Head of AR/VR
Outcome

Time of oven cleaning decreased by 45% and reassembly accuracy increased by 23%.

Pizza Hut

A mobile AR tool that makes oven cleaning more efficient

Research

Strategy

Design

Prototyping

AR

Problem

Pizza Hut needs a more efficient way to train employees on how to clean ovens in order to save time and increase pizza quality.

Background

Pizza Hut ovens need bi-weekly cleaning to ensure top taste and quality, a task that's historically tedious and costly with extensive training. I collaborated with their innovation team to design a mobile AR feature that guides employees through oven cleaning and reassembly without training, saving time and money.

Timeline
3 Months
Role
Lead Product Designer
Team
2 x Designers 3 x Engineers 1 x Head of Innovation 1 x Head of AR/VR
Outcome

Time of oven cleaning decreased by 45% and reassembly accuracy increased by 23%.

Research

01

Research

01

Research

01

At the start of the project, I conducted field research, including onsite interviews with Pizza Hut branch managers in SF. I also traveled to the PH headquarters and performed hands-on training with the innovation team in their on-site mock restaurants.

Insights

Due to high employee turnover some restaurants hired pricey 3rd party cleaning services. The complexity was increased with 8 oven configurations and many cleaning spaces had no extra space for large oven parts, especially at dine-in locations.

3RD PARTY CLEANING

8 CONFIGURATIONS

BUSY CLEANING AREA

Highlight: Mobile-First Decks

02

Highlight: Mobile-First Decks

02

Highlight: Mobile-First Decks

02

The original PDF of decks provided a poor, desktop-only experience that was not mobile-friendly, required additional costly and unscalable training, and only offered information for reassembling one type of oven configuration.

Before

I designed mobile iterations of the legacy decks, using both existing design system patterns and contributing new components for AR process flows. The team aligned on V4 for its clarity and simplicity, learning that simpler designs are often more efficient despite tradeoffs with visual appeal.

V1
V2
V3
V4

During a critique with PH, I emphasized the need for clear step order and combined images with detailed information, leading to option 4. I used Principle to prototype interactions, added illustrations for user rewards, and collaborated with engineers on motion integration, focusing on easing, duration, and animation speed.

V1
V2
V3
V4

Highlight: AR Assisted Reassembly

03

Highlight: AR Assisted Reassembly

03

Highlight: AR Assisted Reassembly

03

Manual labeling often washed off during cleaning, leading to incorrect assembly and poor pizza quality, which explains why some Pizza Hut locations have significantly different pizza tastes.

Before

MANUAL LABELING

INCORRECT ASSEMBLY

POOR PIZZA QUALITY

The final design included a configuration selection before location, calibrating the oven's reassembly process to each restaurant’s regional preference. I included AR labels to locate the oven parts and then leveraged 3D augmented models over the physical oven to guide with replacement.

Configure
Locate
Reassemble
Replace

Impact

04

Impact

04

Impact

04

The project resulted in a 45% reduction in reassembly time and a 23% increase in accuracy, leading to a presentation to the international executive board where the President, impressed and engaged, successfully tried the process live for the first time without errors.

REASSEMBLY TIME

45%

DECREASE

REASSEMBLY ACCURACY

23%

INCREASE

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