Crandall | Cartewheel

Cartewheel

The National School Lunch Program serves more than 30 million children everyday. That is no easy task - one that is only made harder by the tangled web of bureaucracy, regulation, and redundancy that menu planners must traverse before any food is served.

Two Bulls; NY
Team

2018 – 2019
Timeline

Colyar Technologies
Partner

Lead Designer + Strategist
Role

Setting Up Success

Our users are experienced experts in their field and have their process down to a science. We built Cartewheel to augment the current workflow for lunch planners - not to replace it.

We used distinctive visuals paired with simple, reusable patterns so that our users would be able to move quickly, cross-reference between section and not become overwhelmed.

Avoiding Information Overload

In this industry there is a flood of information - nutrition facts, meal patterns, allergens, regulations, etc. Throwing all the information on the screen was difficult to parse through.

We needed to be mindful about the amount of information. That way the users got the relevant information when they needed and so that could focus on what it was saying.

The USDA said that all calculations are the responsibility of menu planners. We heard from our users, the menu planners, that doing these calculations is one of the most frustrating and intimidating parts of their jobs.

Our team felt strongly that supporting the user in these calculations in was going to be one of the biggest values we can add. So we went through a long process to present and persude the USDA to change their software regulations.

Monitoring + Measuring Compliance

Cartewheel is built with a first of it’s kind compliance engine that works to support a user as they go about planning their menus.

We needed to make sure we had a clear system that keeps compliance front-of-mind for users and helps them work develop compliant and delicious meals.

Results

Cartewheel began it’s public launch phase at the end of 2018 with huge buzz and anticipation already proceeding the release.   

Within the next 6 months Cartewheel began to roll out in more than 25 districts across 12 states with purchases planned for more districts and states. We also supported 100+ user training or sales demonstration call sessions in the first few months.