Pup Pantry

Choosing food for your dog should feel simple, but for many pet parents, it becomes a stressful chore that leaves them uncertain if they made the right choice.

Pup Pantry was designed to turn those moments of confusion into moments of confidence. By guiding dog parents through a personalized pet profile and narrowing down the countless options to a small, tailored list, the experience focuses on clarity instead of overload.

A personalized dog food recommendation experience.

The Problem

Dog owners want to feed their pets the best food, but choosing the “right food” is overwhelming. Ingredient lists are confusing, marketing claims are everywhere, and the number of options can feel endless.

Secondary Research

I began conducting secondary research to understand the decision-making process behind dog food selection. I found it wasn’t an absence of options causing the issue, but rather an overabundance of choices combined with confusing marketing labels, conflicting advice, and unclear ingredient claims. Many dog owners experience stress and uncertainty when balancing factors such as breed, age, health concerns, and price.

While food finder quizzes, review and blogging sites, and pet food scanner apps offer some guidance, that guidance is often fragmented, brand-limited, or lacks veterinary-backed support. While veterinarians are the most trusted source, pet owners still navigate the overwhelming food options alone. These insights reinforced that dog owners are looking for clarity and trusted guidance, not just food recommendations.

User Research

I interviewed dog owners to understand what choosing food felt like for them. While they walked me through their food selection process, I paid close attention to their doubts, frustrations, and moments of hesitation. A consistent theme emerged: the decision of selecting the “right” food felt heavier than expected. Describing ingredient lists as being hard to interpret, skepticism of marketing claims, and uncertainty of where to find trusted guidance. Comparing food options often required opening multiple tabs and cross-checking information without feeling confident afterward.

The more conversations I had with dog owners, the more it became clear that the issue certainly was not the lack of food choices but instead the emotional weight of the decision itself.

Persona

From this research emerged Diana, the dog parent, a persona created to represent the emotionally invested pet owners who want the best for their pets but feel uncertain navigating endless brands, ingredients, and advice.

Diana Characteristics:

  • sees her dog Bella as family

  • wants to make a healthy and informed choice

  • overwhelmed by labels, confusing marketing claims, and too many options

Minimal Viable Product

Designing for Diana meant identifying what she truly needed to confidently choose a dog food. After synthesizing research, four core needs emerged: the ability to input Bella’s specific details, receive tailored recommendations, compare her top options side-by-side, and clearly understand ingredient information.

Rather than overwhelming users with a surplus of food options, the focus became narrowing down those options into a manageable, personalized list. The design intentionally removed unnecessary shopping features and prioritized tools for the decision-making process. This guides users step-by-step through a complex process while keeping the experience clear, focused, and reassuring.

Sketches

With Diana’s needs defined, I began sketching possible routes for onboarding, pet profile setup, recommendations, and food comparison. The goal was to explore how to guide users through the experience in a way that felt easy to understand and eliminated overwhelm.

As I worked through these sketches, it became clear that a guided, structured flow best supported Diana’s need for reassurance and reduced overwhelm. Sketching these routes allowed me to quickly test layout decisions before committing to them in higher-fidelity designs.

Sign Up:

Pet Profile Set up:

Food Finder:

After my sketches were complete, I moved into low-fidelity wireframes to evaluate flow, clarity, and potential friction points that dog owners using the app may face. The focus at this stage was on functionality and usability rather than visual polish.

While developing wireframes, several edge cases became apparent. Some users may not have an email address, so a “Continue with Phone Number” option was introduced. Additionally, fields such as age, breed, and weight required an “Unknown” option to accommodate users who may not have exact information.

Minor clarity adjustments were also made, including refining labels and adding a brief tutorial screen to help users understand how the Food Finder works. These changes ensured the experience remained accessible, intuitive, and easy to navigate before progressing to high-fidelity designs.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Branding

Wanting to establish visual and emotional direction that best suited for Pup Pantry, I created a style guide. It was important to maintain an environment that was calm, supportive, and trustworthy for pet parents navigating complex nutrition decisions.

The goal being to make nutritional guidance feel less intimidating and more like receiving advice from a knowledgeable and supportive friend. I selected soft teals to encourage trust and stability, while still using light accent colors to keep the experience welcoming. Rounded buttons and icons to give off a more “bubbly” and lighter tone to reinforce a friendly environment.

High Fidelity Designs

Soon, it was time to begin the high-fidelity designs to bring the experience to life. Now the focus shifted from structure to how the interface would feel emotionally while maintaining the previously established clarity and usability.

I aimed for a minimal, yet still soft and comforting design. Clean and simple layouts with clear hierarchy were prioritized to keep screens from being cluttered as a way to alleviate overwhelm in the food decision-making experience. By incorporating softer accent colors, rounded buttons, and visually lighter icon styles, I kept the atmosphere from feeling too clinical.

The food recommendation screen was designed to present information in an easily digestible way, providing users with key features of each food without being too much to lead to overwhelm. The comparison feature, which was a core part of the experience, was designed to make a side-by-side nutritional evaluation feel simple and visually clear.

Usability Testing-Two Rounds

Once the high-fidelity designs were complete, I conducted two rounds of usability tests with 5 participants in each round. All participants were dog owners with prior experience making online purchases.

During the first round, a major usability issue emerged around the food comparison route. All participants hesitated or were unable to locate the starting point of the food comparison feature. The original flow required users to navigate to “Bella’s Food” to select previously liked foods, proceed to a customizable comparison selection page, and then reach the side-by-side food comparison. This multi-step route created significant friction and slowed down the decision-making process.

Based on these insights, I changed the wording from “Bella’s Food” to “Compare Food” to improve clarity. The customizable comparison selection step was also removed after users expressed a desire to reach the side-by-side comparison more quickly.

In the second round of usability testing, the interface performed significantly better. All participants in the second round were able to quickly locate the comparison feature without any hesitation or confusion. The refined flow now begins with the “Compare Food” button, followed by selecting foods to compare, and then the side-by-side comparison.

Iterations

After reviewing the usability test results, I revisited the problem log and began refining the design by prioritizing the most critical issues first, followed by smaller clarity adjustments. Since the comparison path was a friction point for all participants, it was treated as the highest priority.

Originally, users had to select “Bella’s Food”, select favorited foods, proceed to a customizable comparison page, and then reach the side-by-side food comparison. Based on the hesitation and requests for a faster path, I changed the wording to “Compare Food” and removed the customization step entirely. The side-by-side comparison page was constantly well-received, as users felt like it contained all the necessary information without anything missing. This validated the decision to simplify the route and allow users to reach the comparison page more directly.

Additionally, I addressed another user's concern regarding where the food could be purchased. A “Where to Buy” section was added to individual dog food pages, including retail options and pricing. Improvements were also made to the Pet Profile flow, particularly to questions requiring multi-select responses, as the drop-down previously would close after one selection, creating unnecessary friction. Minor clarity adjustments and label wording were also made to improve overall understanding.

Through these refinements, the updated design became more intuitive, easier to navigate, and more aligned with the goal of helping users make a confident and informed pet food decision.

Reflection

If given more time, I would conduct one additional round of usability tests across all core routes to validate the clarity of the pet profile and food recommendation experience after the second round of refinements.

I would also explore adding an education page, potentially as part of the home page experience. Based on my secondary research, many dog owners seek trustworthy nutritional guidance. Including the design upgrades listed below would elevate Pup Pantry from being primarily a food recommendation tool to a more comprehensive support system for pet parents.

Design Upgrades:

  • Food transitions recommendations,

  • WSAVA nutritional guidelines

  • Current pet food recall information