WORKS/ WEBSITE REDESIGN
Danky Donuts
SERVICE
VISUAL IDENTITY
ROLE
UX/UI
TEAM
ELISA LE
SOPHIA HO
TIMELINE
2026
Danky donuts started as a small, locally owned donut business at San Diego farmers markets in 2009, specializing in fresh, made-on-site donuts, catering, and food truck experiences. They later expanded to catering services and food truck operations across San Diego.
In 2020, however, Danky Donuts faced a problem: COVID.
01 problem
danky donut’s biggest hole
Although Danky Donuts had grown organically through farmers' markets, catering, and food truck appearances at local events. Their growth relied on word of mouth reputation from their community. Despite the brand’s popularity at events, the business lacked a cohesive online presence to sustain growth beyond word-of-mouth.
Our team wanted to bridge the gap between the brand's in-person personality and its digital presence.
02 usability audit
a visual overload that got fried
My team started by doing a comprehensive dive into the home, about, and menu page of the website, commenting wherever we found the site to be confusing or unfriendly to the user. The site was fun, but had style inconsistencies, visual overload, and unusable/hard to use features, that made the overall experience confusing.
03 competitor analysis
a different kind of doughmain
We wanted to understand where Danky Donuts is falling short in terms of style, branding, and usability. We looked at three competitor donut brands: Sidecar Donuts, Devil’s Dozen, and Mochinut.
BRANDING
COMPETITOR
BOLD COLORS AND PLAYFUL VISUALS
RETRO TYPOGRAPHY AND HAND-DRAWN ELEMENTS
DISTINCTIVE, SATIRICAL PERSONALITY
USER EXPERIENCE
CONVENIENT ONLINE ORDERING
CLEAR PRICING AND CATERING OPTIONS
PLAYFUL ANIMATIONS AND HOVER EFFECTS
CUSTOMER REVIEWS AND ACTIVE BLOG
VIDEO STORYTELLING AND CUSTOMER FOCUS
CURATED PRODUCTS AND CLEAR DONUT PRESENTATION
CONTENT AND ENGAGEMENT
We looked at how the three competitors approached branding, user experience, and engagement. After analyzing the three donut brands, we identified what worked in each and what we could bring into our own direction. Competitors all had great design in their sites, but found major success by playing off the personalities of their business.
The biggest opportunity was clear: give Danky Donuts a digital identity as distinctive as its donuts.
04 moodboarding
decorating the donuts
Danky Donuts needed a visual identity that felt as unapologetically fun as Ray himself.
From the competitor analysis we wanted to incorporate the clean visual hierarchy of Mochinut, the hand-drawn elements of Sidecar, and the distinctive and bold branding of Devil’s Dozen. We pulled inspiration from their strongest visual elements without losing what gave Danky Donuts so much soul. Bright colors, playful graphics, and hand-drawn doodles became the foundation of our direction.
From there, we translated those ideas into a cohesive style guide, defining the colors, typography, and graphic elements that would carry across the website. Every touchpoint should feel unmistakably Danky Donuts: approachable, fresh, and just as fun as the donuts themselves.
05 lofis
first proofs
We mapped out the key sections of the Danky Donuts website, from the homepage, the brand story and menu information.
We started with low-fidelity wireframes to establish the hierarchy, navigation, and flow before bringing in the playful visual identity. We wanted bold, hooking visuals in the home page, and tell a clear story about rays upbringing in the about, and a menu layout that let customers browse favorites at a glance and explore individual flavors without losing the bigger picture.
06 problem 1
a hole in the road
After creating Lofis, something the entire team realized is that Ray didn’t have many photos he could use, or a budget to get photos of his product.
Creating an inviting home page was going to be hard without the photos to draw a user in. So we had to pivot.
I had the idea to use AI to generate some stock photos, using reference images and prompted the LLM to generate images we could use throughout the site.
However, although prompting the LLM to get the donuts in the style we envisioned for the site proved to be difficult, and we didn’t want the site to feel vibe coded/ai generated.
We translated Danky Donuts’ homegrown, hand-drawn personality into custom graphics and illustrated menu pages, creating a cohesive visual experience that balanced the brand’s limited resources with its playful identity.
07 initial hifis
roughly baked screens
HOME VERSIONS 1 AND 2
ABOUT VERSIONS 1 AND 2
MENU AND POP UP
With our visual direction, images, and wireframes in place, we brought Danky Donuts to life through our first round of high-fidelity designs. We introduced our hand-drawn graphics, playful typography, and bright color palette while establishing a clear layout for customers to explore the menu. These initial designs gave us a tangible experience to test, helping us identify what worked visually and where the user experience could be improved.With our visual direction, images, and wireframes in place, we brought Danky Donuts to life through our first round of high-fidelity designs. Hand-drawn graphics, playful typography, and bright color palette brought the clean but retro vibe we were going for, while establishing a clear layout for customers to explore the menu. These initial designs gave us a tangible experience to test, helping us identify what worked visually and where the user experience could be improved.
08 user-testing
the first proof
With our first round of hi-fis ready, we put the designs in front of users to see how well the experience translated beyond the screen.
We focused on how easily customers could navigate the site, explore the menu, and find the information they needed. Their feedback helped us identify friction points and areas for improvement, giving us a clearer direction for refining the experience while keeping Danky Donuts’ playful personality intact.
Users loved the site’s hand-drawn graphics and playful aesthetic, but testing revealed opportunities to improve line consistency, layout, and design feasibility. We carried these insights into iterations following the first hifis, refining the experience to balance Danky Donuts’ distinctive personality with usability and practical implementation.
09 mvp/handoff
freshly glazed
With user feedback in hand, we refined our designs to address the issues uncovered during testing while preserving the playful personality that made Danky Donuts unique. After one final round of user testing to validate our changes, we polished the remaining details and brought the website experience to completion. From hand-drawn graphics to a more intuitive layout, every iteration brought us closer to a site that felt just as good to use as it looked.
Prototyped website experience!
11 reflections
what I learned
Personality is only half the recipe:
We knew we wanted the site to feel fun, but good branding goes beyond making things look cute. The visuals still needed to support the user experience, guide attention, and make information easy to find.
Test before you get too attached:
We loved our initial designs, especially the hand-drawn elements, but user testing showed us where the layout and overall experience needed work. Getting feedback early helped us catch issues before they made it into the final design.
Work with the resources that are in front of you:
We wanted to create something that felt authentic to Danky Donuts, but we also had to consider what was realistic to produce. Creating custom graphics and illustrated menu pages helped bridge the gap between our visual direction and the resources available.
Good design is an iterative process:
Our first round of hi-fis definitely wasn't our last. Each round of feedback pushed us to rethink certain decisions, refine the details, and find a better balance between the look we envisioned and an experience that worked for users. It reminded me that the first idea isn't always the best one, and that's kind of the point.
10 outcomes
finishing glaze
Danky Donuts was a passion project Ray started over 10 years ago. He’s a business owner, but he's a fun guy first. We brought Danky Donuts’ personality to life through a website that feels just as fun and homegrown as the owner itself. From hand-drawn graphics to the menu layout, every decision we made was to give customers a better way to explore the business and all of its offerings without losing its unique charm.
After multiple rounds of iteration and user testing, we refined the experience to balance playful visuals with usability. The result was a more cohesive website that felt true to Ray’s vision while making the customer experience easier to navigate.