T&N Cafe: Streamlining Employee Experience

Groundwork

A well-loved local café with a fragmented back-end

Tjønnås og Norvald is a well-established café and deli in Gjøvik's center, known for specialty cheeses, cured meats, oils, and artisan goods. Despite a strong front-of-house experience, operations were scattered across scheduling systems, finances, chat groups, and separate training resources - creating avoidable stress and inconsistent onboarding.

Tight insight work revealed the real problem

Semi-structured interviews with the general manager surfaced the core issue: employees didn't have a single reliable place to go. Everything was somewhere else - creating friction every single day, especially with frequent staff turnover.

Design

One portal, everything in one place

The solution became a focused, streamlined employee portal - consolidating shift scheduling, staff communication, daily routines, training resources, and key business information. The structure was designed so a new employee could understand everything they need from day one.

Outcome

Good structure removes friction

The final portal removes the scattered tools and fixes the everyday friction. The project demonstrated how strong information architecture can directly enhance someone's workday - and reinforced the value of tight insight work and early testing before committing to high-fidelity design.