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Panda Express

Designing a Custom Internal Loyalty Platform That Balances Logic, Delight, and Delivery

Services

UX/UI Design (End-to-End), UX Strategy, Information Architecture (IA), Design Systems, Developer Support, and Documentation/Planning

Tools

Figma, LucidChart, Jira, Confluence, WindSurf, Bootstrap NG, Figma Slides

Platform

Internal Web Platform

Panda Express

Designing a Custom Internal Loyalty Platform That Balances Logic, Delight, and Delivery

Services

UX/UI Design (End-to-End), UX Strategy, Information Architecture (IA), Design Systems, Developer Support, and Documentation/Planning

Tools

Figma, LucidChart, Jira, Confluence, WindSurf, Bootstrap NG, Figma Slides

Platform

Internal Web Platform

Project Overview

Panda Express set out to replace its third-party loyalty provider, Punchh, with a fully customized internal platform—Jacinto—designed to manage offers, rewards, modifiers, and campaign logic. The goal was to create a flexible, scalable system that empowered internal teams to build targeted promotions independently—while maintaining the warmth and playfulness of the Panda brand.

As the sole UX/UI Designer on the project, I led end-to-end design—from information architecture and navigation to campaign logic builders and branded UI components. My focus was on transforming complex workflows into intuitive experiences while building strong stakeholder relationships, maintaining close collaboration with engineering, and delivering design work that reflected Panda’s distinct brand personality.

My Role

Title:

UX & Product Consultant

Teams:

Product, Engineering, Data Architecture, Client Stakeholders

Reported To:

Panda Express Digital Product & Data Leadership

Key Responsibilities

  • Led UX and UI design for all Jacinto features, including campaign creation, rewards, locations, guest profiles, basket modifier tagging, offer targeting, and more.

  • Built the complete sitemap, information architecture, and navigation – accounting for both MVP and future-state capabilities

  • Created and maintained a scalable design system, ensuring consistency across colors, CTAs, tables, forms, filters, inputs, icons, and logic flows.

  • Facilitated weekly client presentations and working sessions to gather feedback, present progress, and refine based on stakeholder input.

  • Documented all client requests—regardless of scope—for future planning and transparent delivery conversations.

  • Collaborated closely with developers and data architects to align on feasibility and proactively suggested UX-friendly alternatives when technical constraints made pixel-perfect implementation impractical.

Challenges & Constraints

  • Modifier System Logic:

    Built a scalable tagging framework across rewards and campaigns that allowed teams to trace, search, and manage modifiers with confidence.

  • Internal Stakeholder Needs:

    Designed for Marketing, CRM, and Ops—each with their own workflows, permissions, and success metrics.

  • Design-System Tension:

    Required to use Bootstrap NG components for development velocity while balancing the client’s desire for custom, branded, and whimsical UI—requiring creative compromises to maintain delight within dev limits

Key Audiences

  • CRM & Loyalty Teams:

    Needed advanced tools to build, tag, and track complex offer logic across stores and states

  • Store Operations & Guest Care:

    Prioritized preview-ability, location grouping, and performance clarity

  • Internal Admins & Loyalty Managers:

    Need to filter, tag, and preview campaigns and rewards across different baskets and offer types. They also require tools to validate reward logic, manage terms and conditions, and monitor campaign status with clarity and control.

Research & Discovery

We began with a collaborative discovery phase to align platform requirements with user needs and business goals.

  • Stakeholder & User Interviews

    Met with future Jacinto users across CRM, Loyalty, and Ops to understand where the Punchh platform fell short. Key pain points included poor visibility into campaigns, confusion around modifier associations, and a lack of flexibility in tagging and reporting.

  • Audit of Legacy Workflows

    Reviewed the existing platform and workflows to uncover redundant fields, inconsistent naming conventions, and confusing user paths—insights that directly informed the new information architecture and UI improvements.


Design Process

UX Architecture & Interaction Design

  • Mapped the platform’s sitemap and navigation structure, defining both MVP and future-state capabilities across modules.

  • Designed nested rule-building workflows using plain language, progressive disclosure, and visual validation to simplify complex logic (e.g., “order must include 2 large entrées with noodles” → “apply free drink”).

  • Supported reward creation at both the item and modifier level, with layered location and timing rules

  • Designed preview and summary elements to reduce user error and increase campaign confidence

UI & Brand Integration

  • Created custom illustrations and micro-interactions that brought Panda’s playful tone into a system-heavy tool

  • Developed a full internal design system aligned with Panda’s brand identity, built atop Bootstrap NG

  • Created accessible layouts for large-scale table management, campaign grouping, and status filtering

  • Produced high-fidelity Figma prototypes and specifications for handoff and QA

Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Client Partnership

    Held multiple working sessions per week with Panda stakeholders and presented designs weekly to build consensus and gather rapid feedback.

  • Developer Alignment

    Acted as a liaison between design and engineering, providing clarity on interaction details and adjusting designs when time constraints required functional trade-offs.



  • Delivery Support

    Created thorough documentation of MVP scope and backlog items, ensuring client requests were logged, referenced, and accounted for in future-state planning.

Methodologies

  • Facilitated weekly feedback sessions with product stakeholders and SMEs to validate workflows and prioritize feature sets.

  • Aligned cross-functionally with engineering and data teams to support technical feasibility.

  • Conducted design-led testing and iterative refinement of workflows based on internal usage scenarios.

  • Led visual QA during sprints to ensure accessibility and usability across screens and states.

Outcomes & Impact

  1. Intuitive Rule Builder:

    Enabled non-technical users to create highly specific campaign logic using visual workflows.

  2. Stronger Campaign Visibility:

    Improved search, tagging, and filtering logic dramatically increased efficiency for CRM and Ops teams.

  3. Brand-Forward Internal Platform:

    Delivered a functional, enterprise-grade tool that still felt playful and unmistakably Panda.

  4. Future-Proofed IA:

    Built a clear, documented information architecture with room for expansion into gifting, A/B testing, and additional campaign variants.

  5. Client Trust & Satisfaction:

    Built strong, lasting relationships with stakeholders through transparent collaboration, rapid iteration, and attention to detail.

  6. Developer Confidence:

    Provided structured design assets and flexible implementation guidance that allowed engineers to deliver on MVP goals without sacrificing usability or UX quality.