Data-driven UX optimization for order management

Wawi is an order management system used by bakery and production teams for handling orders, delivery notes, customer management, and production workflows.

As part of a broader UX improvement initiative, I identified and redesigned one of the most critical workflows in the system: order creation and editing.

Identifying what matters most

Before redesigning individual screens, I wanted to understand which areas of the product created the most value for users.

Using product analytics, I analyzed:

• page views;
• time spent on pages;
• click frequency;
• behavior of experienced users.

This allowed me to identify the workflows that users interacted with most frequently and prioritize improvements based on actual usage rather than assumptions. The analysis revealed that order creation and order editing were among the most business-critical workflows in the system.

Finding friction points

Once the workflow was selected, I reviewed session recordings and heatmaps to understand where users were struggling during order creation.

The analysis revealed several recurring issues:

• users repeatedly clicked inactive navigation items;
• important filters were hidden behind additional interactions;
• search required unnecessary effort;
• loading states interrupted continuous data entry;
• parts of the interface generated large numbers of dead clicks.

Instead of relying on assumptions, each proposed change was directly tied to observed user behavior.

Rethinking the sidebar navigation

One of the usability issues identified during the review was the application's navigation pattern.

The original sidebar remained hidden by default and could only be accessed by hovering over navigation icons. While this approach maximized available screen space, it introduced several usability problems:

• the expanded menu covered a significant portion of the main workspace, including customer and order lists;
• users had no clear indication of their current location within the application;
• navigating between sections required multiple hover interactions, increasing the effort needed to complete common tasks.

To address these issues, I redesigned the navigation to support both expanded and collapsed states.

Making frequent filters more accessible

Session recordings and heatmaps showed that customer filtering was one of the most frequently used actions in this workflow.

Despite this, the filter was hidden behind a separate button, even though it represented a core part of how users navigated customer lists.

This created two usability issues:

• users had to perform an extra click every time they wanted to change the filter;
• the currently selected filter was hidden, making it difficult to understand which customer group was being displayed.

As a result, users often needed to reopen the filter panel simply to check its current state before continuing their work.

To address this, I moved the filter directly into the main interface and made the selected option permanently visible. This reduced unnecessary interactions and provided immediate context about the data being displayed.

Search results

While reviewing session recordings, I noticed that users often searched for a customer but received no results because the customer belonged to a different filter group. This led to a trial-and-error process where users repeatedly switched between filters and ran the same search again.

To address this, I changed the search behavior to display matching customers even when they were hidden by the active filter. Results were grouped into two sections:

• customers matching the current filter;
• customers hidden by the selected filter.

Outcome

The project resulted in a set of validated UX improvements for one of the most frequently used workflows in the application.

Key deliverables included:

• redesigned customer selection and order creation flows;
• improved sidebar navigation with persistent state support;
• more transparent customer filtering and search behavior;
• documented interaction patterns and implementation requirements for the development team;
• success metrics and tracking events configured in PostHog to measure the impact of future releases.

The proposed solutions were reviewed with product stakeholders and the development team. Several concepts were adjusted or removed due to technical constraints, while the remaining improvements were approved for implementation.