Shake Shack
Food & Beverage
Shake Shack is a modern fast-casual restaurant brand known for its high-quality burgers, crinkle-cut fries, hand-spun shakes, and commitment to elevated ingredients. Founded in 2004 in New York City, the company has grown into a global brand with locations across the U.S. and internationally.
The Challenge
Shake Shack was looking to improve in-store efficiency and scale operations during peak hours. However, customers were frequently bypassing digital ordering kiosks in favor of cashier interactions, creating bottlenecks and slowing down service.
Low adoption of both kiosks and the mobile app limited throughput and increased operational strain on staff. At the same time, the team needed a reliable way to iterate on key digital experiences—like product listing pages, navigation, and menu layouts—without risking costly design missteps.
The Outcome
Using PlaybookUX, the team conducted unmoderated usability testing and card sorting to rapidly refine their digital experiences. Through multiple rounds of comparison testing, they optimized critical elements such as global navigation, product cards, and menu interfaces.
For their in-store kiosks, iterative A/B testing of start screens and menu flows uncovered friction points and validated improvements before rollout. These insights enabled the team to confidently implement changes that significantly improved usability.
As a result, Shake Shack achieved a 69% increase in kiosk adoption, leading to faster order throughput, reduced reliance on cashiers, and lower operational overhead. The improvements also enhanced the overall customer experience by making digital ordering more intuitive and accessible.
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PlaybookUX enables us to run multiple rounds of comparison testing to continuously refine our Product List Page, from global navigation to product cards. We also use the tool to successfully optimize our in-store kiosk experience, ultimately increasing adoption and reducing overhead.
Christina Tian, Senior UX Designer at Shake Shack