Fast Language Switching for Shared Kitchen Displays

Compass Digital, 2025

Who is Compass Digital?

Compass group is the world's leading food service and hospitality company and Compass Digital is the innovation arm of Compass Group North America.

What is Centric KDS?

Centric KDS is an award winning kitchen display system: the tablet-based screen back-of-house staff use to see, prep, and clear incoming orders.

The Problem

Across Compass Digital's restaurants, the majority of kitchen staff speak a language other than English as their first language. However, every screen on the KDS, from order cards to settings, only support English. The main concerns included:

Slower Order Completion: Staff lost time translating the items on order tickets.
Increased Order Mistakes: Misread items and modifiers led to remakes and wasted food.
Increased customer complaints: both of the above surfaced downstream, in guest-facing complaints tied back to order errors and wait times.
Accessibility Concerns: Without supporting French in Canada, and Spanish in the US, the product was not compatible with accessibility guidelines where legally required

The Goal

Support a multilingual kitchen staff by designing language control system that felt as fast as everything else on the KDS, that allows them to keep up with time orders and getting them correct the first time.

Research

After conducting operator interviews with staff from 6 of our busiest kitchens, as well physical shift observations, a few patterns regarding language across the floor were surfaced. These patterns are the constraints and motivators taken into design decisions.

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Order errors tied to language

Remade or delayed tickets during peak shifts were traced back to a KDS operator misreading an English note or modifier.

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Time lost re-reading tickets

Bilingual staff self-reported spending an extra 2–3 seconds per order translating, adding up across a shift of 150+ tickets.

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Shared device conflict

Majority of kitchen staff in busier locations have a shared second language other than English.

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Second Language

In wide-staffed kitchens, there is a shared-second language and only one additional language support is needed at a time.

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Locks or limits on KDS settings

Kitchen managers many times placed locked or limits on KDS settings to avoid setting changes across shifts.

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Physical constraints

Staff regularly interact with the screen with wet, gloved, or food-covered hands.

Rapid Sketching

After conducting the interviews and observing kitchen staff, the next step was to get to iterating. This process included research on current existing design solutions from competitors and other brands, as well as accessibility considerations. With this in mind, a few sketches were created to share with the PM and engineering team to understand technical limitations for any approach.

Click the image to take a closer at the sketches and mockups that were shared to cross-functional teams.

Testing with KDS Operators

Narrowing down the options, I put two of the five concepts in front of real KDS operators, including line cooks and shift leads with functional prototypes.

Option 1 - Hold to Switch

Enables operators can quickly switch between English and a second language controlled through admin within the settings. This would allow user to select the language quickly and on-the-go without impacting their workflow.

Operator Feedback

Great for quick glances and easy to switch between languages
However, because of the old, it doesn't support the translation of other core workflows, including expanding cards, any popups, dropdown settings on the card, etc.
Noted that it can be a struggle to hold the button down with gloves or greasy fingers

Option 2 - Select and Toggle

Allows operators to select a second language to set up, and toggle between English and the second language seamlessly.

Operator Feedback

High preference for this version, supports all workflows and easy to toggle back when needed
Supports multilingual staff by being able to change the second language rather than admin.
Noted, however, that it should be supported that the toggle returns to a default state at the end of each shift or time intervals in order to avoid frustrations for multiple users.

Final Approach

Option 2 "Select and Toggle" was the clear favourite in testing as it supported every workflow the first option couldn't. This includes expanding cards, popups, dropdown settings on the card, stock management tools, and guest order pages which are crucial to the operators workflow. It also creates an easier experience for multilingual kitchens, and while the scope of this project only covered

Impact & Results

Operational Efficiency
Language switching now takes a single tap, under 2 seconds, right from the Orders screen, fitting in seamlessly with the operator workflow.

Error Reduction & Order Accuracy
Consistent language state across every screen reduced language-related order errors by 65% in the first month.

User Adoption & Satisfaction
75% of multilingual kitchens turned on "Alternate Languages" within weeks, with no prompting, and consistently positive feedback from operators.

Business Value
Multilingual support gave Centric KDS a real edge over legacy, English-only kitchen display systems, putting it a step ahead of competitors that still require a detour to Settings.

Testing with KDS Operators

Narrowing down the options, I put two of the five concepts in front of real KDS operators, including line cooks and shift leads with functional prototypes.

Option 1 - Hold to Switch

Operator Feedback

Great for quick glances and easy to switch between languages
However, because of the old, it doesn't support the translation of other core workflows, including expanding cards, any popups, dropdown settings on the card, etc.
Noted that it can be a struggle to hold the button down with gloves or greasy fingers

Option 2 - Select and Toggle

Allows operators to select a second language to set up, and toggle between English and the second language seamlessly.

Operator Feedback

High preference for this version, supports all workflows and easy to toggle back when needed
Supports multilingual staff by being able to change the second language rather than admin.
Noted, however, that it should be supported that the toggle returns to a default state at the end of each shift or time intervals in order to avoid frustrations for multiple users.

Final Approach

Impact & Results

Operational Efficiency
Language switching now takes a single tap, under 2 seconds, right from the Orders screen, fitting in seamlessly with the operator workflow.

Error Reduction & Order Accuracy
Consistent language state across every screen reduced language-related order errors by 65% in the first month.

User Adoption & Satisfaction
75% of multilingual kitchens turned on "Alternate Languages" within weeks, with no prompting, and consistently positive feedback from operators.

Business Value
Multilingual support gave Centric KDS a real edge over legacy, English-only kitchen display systems, putting it a step ahead of competitors that still require a detour to Settings to support multiple languages.

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