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PetWise Multi-Brand Navigation
Project type
Product Design, UX/UI Design, IxD
Date
2025
I designed a cohesive, mobile-first super-navigation that unified 5 siloed PetWise D2C brand sites into a seamless cross-brand shopping experience, boosting discoverability, reducing cognitive load, and preserving each brand’s identity.
The Problem & The Goal
PetWise managed five separate D2C brand sites with no unified navigation. Users faced disconnected journeys, poor discoverability, and inconsistent branding. Logos and taglines were mismatched, the nav disappeared when menus expanded, and hero space was cluttered, creating confusion and eroding trust.
The goal was to design a responsive super-navigation that made cross-brand shopping effortless, reduced cognitive load, and preserved the individuality of each brand, while keeping hero content visible and impactful, and driving conversions.
The goal was to design a responsive super-navigation that made cross-brand shopping effortless, reduced cognitive load, and preserved the individuality of each brand, while keeping hero content visible and impactful, and driving conversions.
My Role, Context, & Constraints
As the sole UX/UI designer, I led research, IA, wireframes, and high-fidelity design. I worked with the VP of E-commerce, CMO, Creative Director, and Sasquatch Agency developers to balance user needs with business goals and technical constraints. The aim was to unify five brand sites into a responsive nav that encouraged cross-brand shopping and reduced cognitive load, while still respecting existing brand styles and working within a legacy CMS and limited dev resources.
Competitive Analysis
I reviewed PetWise’s existing sites and studied multi-brand navigation from ESPN, GAP, and Aerie. The research confirmed the need for a persistent, secondary nav with bold active states that preserved hero content while signaling brand cohesion. I also researched navigation design best practices, using guidelines from UX authorities like Nielsen Norman Group and Baymard.
Prototyping
I built an interactive Figma prototype to demonstrate navigation flow across desktop and mobile. This allowed stakeholders to experience the system in action, test brand recognition and active states, and align quickly on the final direction.
Logo & Icon System
Each brand’s original logos were disproportionately sized and carried long taglines that were unreadable at small sizes. I standardized the assets by removing taglines, scaling logos proportionately, and creating simplified icons. This produced a clean, cohesive system that reduced clutter while maintaining brand recognition.
Mobile Wireframes
I began mobile-first, sketching tabbed, hamburger, and hybrid nav concepts. These wireframes framed early discussions with stakeholders, helping weigh clarity against brand individuality.
Medium-Fidelity Desktop Mock-Ups
On desktop, I explored multiple treatments of logos and descriptors. These medium-fidelity mockups tested how much detail could be shown without overwhelming users or pushing content below the fold.
Mobile Iterations
Two mobile options were refined: one with brand descriptors and another with only brand names. While descriptors offered more context, they limited scalability. Stakeholders selected the brand-name option for its clarity and adaptability, though they heavily considered the brand descriptor version for providing context to new users unfamiliar with PetWise brands.
Final Design
The final super-navigation unified all five brand sites with consistent logos, typography, and active states. It created a cohesive user experience that scaled easily while preserving each brand’s identity.
Results & Impact
Post-launch, cross-brand clickthroughs increased, clutter above the fold was reduced by 60 percent, and conversions improved as bounce rates dropped. Stakeholders praised the stronger sense of cohesion across the brand portfolio, implementing it immediately and requesting my feedback on developer-designed site pages.
Takeaways
Even on a rapid timeline, lightweight validation and iteration made a measurable impact. Unifying multiple brand identities under one UX system improved usability, strengthened trust, and set the foundation for future refinements through analytics and user testing.
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