HOSPITALITY
HOSPITALITY
Flesh & Buns
Flesh & Buns
Background
Flesh & Buns is a Japanese-inspired restaurant in London, created by the team behind Bone Daddies. Inspired by Tokyo’s izakaya dining culture, it is known for its signature bao buns filled with grilled meats and toppings, alongside Japanese small plates and cocktails in a lively, social setting.
My Role
On this project, I led the discovery, ideation, and delivery phases to define a new brand vision centred around a hedonistic feasting experience. I developed a design system that could be consistently applied across both digital touchpoints and the physical restaurant environment, ensuring the brand experience translated seamlessly between online and in-venue interactions.
The Challenge
Flesh & Buns wanted to attract a new audience of lunchtime diners, expanding beyond their existing evening-focused customer base. They also wanted to promote their feasting menus, which were designed for larger groups and shared dining experiences. This shift in focus led to the development of a new set of brand guidelines created by an external agency, introducing a bold new direction across their three restaurant brands.
The challenge was to translate this updated brand vision into a cohesive digital experience for their website. The design needed to push the boundaries of cool, edgy aesthetics while still maintaining strong usability across both mobile and desktop devices.
Constraints
At the same time, the user interface had to remain consistent with the visual identity and atmosphere of their sister restaurant brands, Bone Daddies and Shackfuyu.
Balancing a visually expressive brand with a functional and accessible web experience was key to ensuring the digital presence reflected the same energy and personality as the in-restaurant dining experience.
Research
During the discovery phase, I conducted stakeholder interviews with the Marketing Manager at Flesh & Buns to understand their new business strategy and the audience they wanted to attract, particularly lunchtime diners and larger groups interested in their feasting menus.
Alongside this, I carried out an analytics review using Google Analytics to understand how users were currently navigating the website. I analysed behaviour flow and key user paths to ensure that important journeys for existing customers, such as browsing menus and booking tables, were preserved in the new experience.
Combining insights from stakeholder interviews and analytics data helped identify usability opportunities and informed the structure of the new user journeys.
Using these findings, I created user personas representing both existing customers and new audience segments the restaurant wanted to attract, including lunchtime diners and larger groups looking for shared feasting experiences.
Ideation
Following the discovery phase, I mapped each persona to their key journey through the website. This helped identify important touchpoints for users looking to book a table, explore menus, or discover dining options across different restaurant locations.
Using these journey maps, I developed a revised sitemap and information architecture to ensure the site structure supported the needs of each persona and made it easier for users to navigate between menus, locations, and booking options.
I then explored layout concepts through low-fidelity wireframes, starting with a mobile-first approach to visualise how users would progress through their journey to achieve their goals. These early concepts were presented to the Flesh & Buns team for feedback before progressing to high-fidelity wireframes.
Once the wireframes were completed, I conducted 1-to-1 walkthroughs with the senior leadership team to demonstrate how each persona could easily navigate the site and access the relevant areas within their journey.
Delivery
With the high-fidelity wireframes approved by the senior team at Flesh & Buns, I progressed to developing the final user interface. I collaborated closely with the external branding team to enhance the digital experience using custom illustrations and visual elements that would also carry through into the physical restaurant environment.
As part of the delivery phase, I produced several key UX deliverables, including a responsive UI design, an interactive prototype for final stakeholder sign-off, and a comprehensive design system containing reusable components, typography, colour guidelines, and layout patterns to ensure consistency across the site.
I presented the interactive prototype to senior stakeholders to demonstrate the final user journeys and interface before obtaining sign-off. After approval, I handed over the design system, UI specifications, and annotated wireframes to the development team to support a smooth implementation and maintain design integrity.
Wireframes
User Interface
Results & learnings
Following the successful launch of the new website and restaurant, the team attended the opening event to experience the refreshed brand and sample the menus. The website redesign was well-received, and the insights and design patterns developed for Flesh & Buns were later applied to update the user interface for the sister brand, Shackfuyu.
A key learning from this project was the importance of close collaboration with external teams. To streamline future projects, we implemented a simplified sign-off process that made it easier for stakeholders to review and approve concepts efficiently, reducing delays and improving overall project workflow.
Results & learnings
Following the successful launch of the new website and restaurant, the team attended the opening event to experience the refreshed brand and sample the menus. The website redesign was well-received, and the insights and design patterns developed for Flesh & Buns were later applied to update the user interface for the sister brand, Shackfuyu.
A key learning from this project was the importance of close collaboration with external teams. To streamline future projects, we implemented a simplified sign-off process that made it easier for stakeholders to review and approve concepts efficiently, reducing delays and improving overall project workflow.
