Back To Projects
Client
Pantry Genius
Work type
UX/UI Design, Branding
[Introduction]
PantryGenius set out to close the nightly gap between what's in the kitchen and what's for dinner. But the concept rested on data users have no patience to provide: pantry inventories are tedious to maintain and inherently imprecise, yet the AI needed them to deliver anything worth opening the app for. The design problem wasn't the recipe engine, it was earning enough input to make the engine useful, without asking users to become bookkeepers.
[Challanges]
As lead UX/UI Product Designer, I faced one core tension: the app depended on data users had no patience to provide. Ingredient capture had to feel like seconds, not bookkeeping. AI suggestions had to stay trustworthy even when the pantry data behind them was incomplete. And three competing modes: inventory, discovery, and personal cookbook, needed to sit behind a single coherent front door rather than three apps stitched together. I also built PantryGenius its identity from the ground up, designing the logo and defining the full visual language of color, typography, and a cohesive design system. The branding gave a data-heavy concept a warm, approachable personality, making the app feel inviting rather than clinical.
[Final outcome]
The final design reframes a data-entry burden as a lightweight, rewarding ritual. Ingredient capture happens in seconds, AI suggestions stay credible even on partial pantry data, and the three modes, inventory, discovery, and personal cookbook, flow together behind one intuitive interface. Paired with a warm, cohesive brand identity, PantryGenius turns the nightly "what's for dinner?" question into something the app can actually answer, letting AI do the heavy lifting while users do the least possible work.
