Overview
Before
Problem
Design System
Website
App
Reflect

Legacy Brand Redesign · Design System · Digital Experience

Rajbhog
Foods

America's #1 Indian sweets brand. 45 years of trust. Zero design system when I joined. I'm rebuilding the entire brand experience — from Figma tokens to a website that feels nothing like a grocery store.

RoleLead UX Product Designer
StatusIn Progress · Jul 2025–Present
Scope3 Brands · Web · App · System
ToolsFigma · Illustrator · AI
RAJBHOG
Since 1979 · Edison, NJ
America's
Sweetest
Tradition
Shop Sweets →
Gift Builder
45+
Years
200+
Products
#1
US Brand
Fresh Today
Kaju Katli
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
$12.99/lb
Gift Box
$29.99
Gift Builder
Build your box
Classic
$29.99
Premium
$57.99
Customize →
New Design (In Progress)
45Years of brand trust — zero design documentation on day one
3Brands being redesigned simultaneously — Rajbhog, Nomad Cuisine, B2B line
0→1Complete Figma design system built from scratch — tokens, components, patterns
Color direction rejected before CEO approval — trust earned through iteration

Overview

America's #1 Indian sweets brand — with no design system

Rajbhog Foods has been in business since 1979. It is the largest Indian sweets brand in North America — retail locations in New Jersey, wholesale B2B, and ecommerce. When I joined as Lead UX Product Designer in July 2025, none of that legacy was reflected in the digital experience.

The website looked like a WooCommerce template from 2015. No brand guidelines, no Figma files, no color tokens, no component library. Three different brands running off three different visual systems — or rather, no visual system at all.

What I OwnEnd-to-end UX across 3 brands — research · IA · design system · website redesign · app concept · CEO presentations
CompanyRajbhog Foods NJ Inc.
ChannelsB2C retail · B2B wholesale · Ecommerce
ToolsFigma · Illustrator · Notion · AI
MethodsBrand audit · Competitive analysis · Design system · Iterative design
ResponsibilityOwnership
Brand audit — all 3 brandsI Led
Figma design system (tokens → components → patterns)I Led
Website redesign — full IA + UX + UI (5 screens)In Progress
App concept — 4 screens wireframed + moving to hi-fiIn Progress
Stakeholder presentations to CEO — color direction, IAI Led
Competitive analysis — 4 competitors + 3 aspirationalI Led
Developer handoff + sprint planningPartnered
This is what I walked into on day one — rajbhog.com before my redesign

The Audit

45 years of brand equity. No design infrastructure.

First week: full audit. Documented every inconsistency, every UX failure, every missed opportunity. A brand with enormous cultural trust — and a digital presence that communicated none of it.

Old Rajbhog hero

Hero Section — Multiple Problems

Generic WooCommerce template. The white circle overlay randomly cuts through food photography. Two competing type systems. Orange CTA with no relationship to any color system. No brand story above the fold.

Old product listing

Product Cards — No Visual Hierarchy

Name, description, and CTA all compete at the same visual weight. Icon tabs have no active state. Product images inconsistently cropped. No freshness signal, no occasion context.

Old catering section

Catering — Zero Brand Voice

"Make every occasion special" is stock template copy. No 45-year narrative. No Rajbhog personality anywhere.

Old gift hampers

Gift Hampers — No Premium Signal

$140 gift sets presented as plain-text list rows. Zero premium experience for a high-intent purchase moment.

Old navigation

Navigation — No System

Icons inconsistent in weight/size. No hierarchy between primary and secondary items. Structured around product type, not user intent.

The Chaos Audit — 8 Critical Gaps

No Color Tokens
4 different shades of orange used across the site. None defined in any system. Each developer made their own call.
No Type Scale
Font sizes hardcoded. No shared scale. Headings inconsistent section to section.
No Grid System
Content floated freely. Padding varied by section. No baseline grid or consistent spacing unit.
No Components
Every button, card, and input custom-coded independently. Any change required finding every instance manually.
Broken Mobile
Product cards collapsed badly below 768px. Navigation completely unusable on mobile. 60%+ of traffic impacted.
No Accessibility
Orange on white text failed WCAG AA at 2.3:1. No skip navigation. 80% of product images missing alt text.
No Logo System
Logo appeared in 3 different sizes, 2 color variants, with no usage rule or protected space guide.
3 Brands, 0 Cohesion
Rajbhog, Nomad Cuisine, and B2B wholesale had no shared design language whatsoever.

Competitive Analysis

Understanding the landscape before designing anything

Audited 4 competitors and 3 aspirational references before touching a single Figma frame. Goal: find where the category is underdeveloped, and where Rajbhog had room to be genuinely different.

Sukhadia's
sukhadias.com
Direct Competitor
Same generic WooCommerce feel. Proves the whole category is underdeveloped.
No brand story, no personality, no differentiation beyond product list.
+Better mobile product browsing than Rajbhog's current state.
Opportunity: If Rajbhog goes premium editorial, it has zero direct competition in that lane.
Haldiram's US
haldiramsonline.com
Direct Competitor
Better global brand recognition, but US digital presence is weaker.
Product-first, story-last. No emotional connection built.
+Clean product photography sets a benchmark worth matching.
Opportunity: "Made in NJ since 1979" localness is something Haldiram's cannot claim.
Goldbelly
goldbelly.com
Aspirational Reference
+Food storytelling done beautifully — every product has a story, a maker, a place.
+Gift-first experience design — the gift use case is front and center.
+Premium without feeling inaccessible — warm, human, trustworthy.
Borrow: The "story of the maker" format for the 45-year narrative section.
Diaspora Co.
diasporaco.com
Aspirational Reference
+South Asian brand done at world-class design level — proves it's possible.
+Heritage framing as premium signal, not museum piece.
+Photography: warm, editorial, not stock-photo generic.
Borrow: How to make heritage feel like luxury, not a limitation.

The Problem

You can't just "rebrand" something 45 years of families trust

This is the central tension. Rajbhog's existing visual identity — saffron orange, dark green, the specific logo — is embedded in customers' emotional memory. Diwali boxes in that orange. Wedding orders in that packaging. 45 years of family moments tied to that color.

You cannot walk in and say "we're changing the color palette." Every change has to be earned. Every decision needs a rationale that respects the equity already built. The CEO has watched competitors come and go while the original brand endured.

The Constraint That Shaped Everything
The color has to change — but it can't feel like it changed. Evolution, not revolution. Every pixel needed to feel like Rajbhog had always been this way.

The color approval — 4 iterations

1
Rejected — "Too dark, doesn't feel like Rajbhog." CEO.
2
Rejected — "Too close to what we have. What changed?" Board.
3
Partially approved — cream background works, gold needs refinement.
"Now it looks expensive but still ours." — CEO, approving v4.
Existing — 45 years of memory
Legacy Orange
Brand Green
White

This exact orange is on 45 years of sweet boxes. In customers' photos. On their mothers' refrigerators. The green logo is what "Rajbhog" looks like in their minds. You cannot change this without consequence — so the transition has to be invisible.

Proposed — earned evolution
Refined Gold
Deep Maroon
Warm Cream

Same warmth — more intentional. Orange to gold is the same hue, elevated. Maroon carries the red heritage but gives it depth. Cream replaces flat white with something that feels like a kitchen, a festival, a home.

How AI Was Used in Research & Color Testing
Color psychology research: AI synthesized research on how South Asian-American audiences perceive saffron vs gold vs orange — validating the shift before pitching to CEO.
Competitive audit compression: AI analyzed 12 competitor sites for design patterns — 4 hours of research compressed to 40 minutes.
Copy iteration: Generated 20+ hero headline variations, then edited for Rajbhog's brand voice.
Accessibility checking: Contrast ratio testing across the full proposed palette before stakeholder presentation.

Figma Design System

Building the foundation before touching a single screen

No design system = no shared language. Every new page was a new set of decisions. I built the Rajbhog design system from scratch — tokens first, then components, then patterns. Every screen after this is built on this foundation.

01 — Foundation Layer — Color Tokens + Typography Scale

Rajbhog_DesignSystem_v2.4.fig · Foundation · Color Tokens · Typography
Foundation
🎨 Color Tokens
🔤 Typography
📐 Spacing Scale
🔲 Grid System
🔲 Elevation
Components
⬜ Buttons
📝 Inputs
🃏 Product Cards
🧭 Navigation
🏷 Badges
💬 Modals
📢 Toast / Alert
Patterns
Product Grid
Gift Builder
🪔 Occasion Nav
💳 Checkout Flow
Brand
🏷 Logo System
🖼 Photography
✏️ Iconography
Color Tokens — Brand Primary (10-step scale)
--color-primary
--color-accent
--color-bg
--color-dark
--color-error
--color-success
Typography Scale — Bebas Neue (display) + DM Sans (body)
Display/Bebas 72Rajbhog Foods
H1/Bebas 48America's Sweetest Tradition
H2/DM Sans 700 28Featured Products — Fresh Daily
H3/DM Sans 600 20Kaju Katli · Premium Cashew Fudge
Body/DM Sans 400 16Crafted with care in Edison, NJ since 1979. Every sweet made fresh daily.
Caption/700 11Category Label · Sweets

↑ Foundation layer — 10-step color token system with semantic aliases and the full typography scale. Shared as a Figma library across all 3 brand files.

02 — Component Library — Buttons, Inputs, Badges, Cards

Rajbhog_DesignSystem_v2.4.fig · Components · All States
Buttons — 5 Variants · 5 States Each
Primary
Secondary
Ghost
Accent
Input Fields — All States
Search
Try product name or category
Email (Focus state)
Postal code (Error)
Please enter a valid US zip code
Phone (Valid)
✓ Phone number verified
Badges + Status Tags
Fresh TodayOut of StockIn StockPre-orderNew Arrival
🪔 Diwali Pick💍 Wedding🌙 Eid Special
Product Cards — Default / Hover / Out of Stock
Kaju Katli
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
$12.99/lb
Mohanthal
Unavailable
Gulab Jamun
$14.99/lb

↑ Full component library — 5 button variants across 5 states, all input states, badge system, product cards (default / hover / out of stock). Every component built with auto-layout and Figma variants.

Website Redesign — In Progress

Not Shopify. An experience of its own.

The brief I wrote for myself: this site should feel like walking into the Edison store — warm, abundant, family-owned, and deeply Indian-American. Five screens designed and prototyped in Figma.

01 — Homepage Hero
RAJBHOG
Edison, NJ · Since 1979
Sweets Gift Occasions Catering Our Story
Order Now
Since 1979 · Edison, NJ
America's
Sweetest
Tradition
Handcrafted Indian sweets made fresh daily — for Diwali, weddings, everyday joy, and every celebration in between.
Shop Sweets →
Build a Gift Box
45+
Years
200+
Products
#1
US Indian Sweets Brand
All
🪔 Diwali
💍 Wedding
🌙 Eid
Fresh Today
Gift Boxes
Fresh Today See all →
Kaju Katli
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
$12.99/lb
Mohanthal
$15.99/lb
Gulab Jamun
$14.99/lb
Gift Box
$29.99

Homepage hero — dark editorial treatment sets a different tone from every Indian food competitor. Occasion-first navigation replaces the old product-type dropdown.

02 — Product Catalog
RAJBHOG
SweetsGiftOccasions
Order Now
Sweets
Snacks
Bakery
Frozen
Gift Boxes
All Sweets Showing 24 of 80 · Sort: Fresh First ↓
Kaju Katli
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
$12.99/lb
Mohanthal
$15.99/lb
Mohanthal
Out of Stock
Rasgulla
$11.99/lb
Khoya Barfi
$16.99/lb
Pista Barfi
$19.99/lb
Motichoor Laddoo
$13.99/lb

Product catalog with occasion-first filter tabs and design-system product cards across all states.

03 — Gift Builder
RAJBHOG
SweetsGift
Order Now
Build Your Gift Box
Box
2
Sweets
3
Message
4
Checkout
Your Box
+
+
Classic Box · 4 items
$29.99
Choose Your Sweets
Kaju Katli
+$4.50
Jalebi
+$3.25
Mohanthal
+$4.00
G. Jamun
+$3.75
Rasgulla
+$3.50
Khoya Barfi
+$4.25

Gift Builder — 4-step flow with live box preview. The old site had no dedicated gifting experience at all.

04 — Our Story
RAJBHOG
SweetsOur Story
Order Now
Heritage · 45 Years
Our Story
One family, one recipe book, and forty-five years of Diwali mornings in Edison, New Jersey. [Placeholder — swap for real founding story.]
The Rajbhog Journey
Built on one recipe.
Grown by a
million moments.
It started with one recipe box and a shop in Edison, New Jersey, in 1979. No shortcuts, no substitutes — just the same cashews, the same ghee, the same hands taught by the generation before. Forty-five years later, that box has grown into America's #1 Indian sweets brand, and we still make everything the way it was meant to be made. [Placeholder — swap for real founding story.]
1979
First store opens in Edison, NJ
1991
Expanded to 3 New Jersey locations
2008
Launched B2B wholesale distribution
2019
Named America's #1 Indian sweets brand
2025
Complete digital redesign begins

Our Story — makes 45 years feel like a luxury asset. Dark editorial header into warm white. Old site had no story page.

05 — Diwali Occasion Landing
RAJBHOG
SweetsOccasions
Order Now
🪔 Festival Collection 2025
Diwali Sweets
Order by November 1 for guaranteed delivery before Diwali · Free gift wrapping on all boxes
Shop Diwali Collection
Bulk Orders →
Diwali Gift Boxes — Choose Yours
Classic Box
From $29.99
4 sweets of your choice
Most Popular
Premium Box
From $57.99
8 sweets + gift wrap
💎
Grand Box
From $139.99
16 sweets + trunk + ribbon

Diwali occasion landing — dedicated page per festival. Old site had zero occasion-specific landing pages.

App Concept — In Progress

The same experience, in your pocket.

Rajbhog customers return for every major occasion — Diwali, Eid, Navratri, weddings, baby showers. An app makes that ritual frictionless. Same design tokens, same components as the web — different form factor.

01 — Home
RAJBHOG
🌅 Fresh today · Edison, NJ
America's
Sweetest
Tradition
Order by 2pm — same-day pickup
Shop Now →
Gift Builder
Fresh Today 🟡
See all
Kaju Katli
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
$12.99/lb
Mohanthal
$15.99/lb
Shop by Occasion
All occasions
🪔
Diwali
Gift boxes from $29
💍
Wedding
Bulk orders
🌙
Eid
Assorted trays
👶
Baby Shower
Gift hampers
🏠Home
Explore
Gift
📦Orders
👤Account

Home — Fresh Today + Occasion-first navigation

02 — Gift Builder
← Back
Gift Builder
Box
2
Sweets
3
Message
4
Pay
Your Box
+
+
Classic · 4 items
$29.99
Choose Sweets 2 of 4 added
Kaju Katli
+$4.50
Jalebi
+$3.25
Mohanthal
+$4.00
G. Jamun
+$3.75
Rasgulla
+$3.50
Khoya Barfi
+$4.25

Gift Builder — step 2 of 4 with live box preview

03 — Explore
RAJBHOG
Search sweets, snacks...
All
Sweets
Snacks
Bakery
🔥 Most Popular
See all
Kaju Katli
Sweets · Fresh Daily
$18.99/lb
Jalebi
Sweets · Fresh Daily
$12.99/lb
🥐
Mawa Kachori
Snacks · Fresh Today
$8.99
Gulab Jamun
Sweets · Frozen
$14.99/lb
🪔 Diwali Picks
See collection
Classic Gift Box
$29.99
Premium Hamper
$57.99
🏠Home
Explore
Gift
📦Orders
👤Account

Explore — search + occasion-curated collections

04 — Orders
My Orders
All Orders
Pending
Delivered
Recent Orders
🪔
Diwali Gift Box — Classic
Oct 28, 2025 · Pickup: Edison
Delivered
$29.99
Kaju Katli 2lb + Jalebi 1lb
Nov 12, 2025 · Delivery
Processing
$51.97
🪔 Diwali 2026 is in 48 days
You ordered the Classic Gift Box last year. Ready to reorder?
🏠Home
Explore
Gift
📦Orders
👤Account

Order History — one-tap reorder + AI Diwali reminder

How AI Powers the App Experience
Occasion Intelligence
The "Diwali in 48 days" prompt cross-references calendar dates with order history to surface reorder nudges at exactly the right moment — not too early, not too late.
Personalization Engine
🎨
Gift Recommendation
AI suggests sweet combinations for the Gift Builder based on occasion type, past order history, and popular pairings — reducing decision fatigue for first-time gifters.
Recommendation ML
📊
Freshness Prediction
Model trained on production data predicts which items will be "Fresh Today" and surfaces them in the morning feed — giving the app real-time accuracy without manual staff input.
Predictive Inventory

Reflection

What redesigning a 45-year brand teaches you

01
Infrastructure is invisible until it's missing
No one notices a design system when it exists. Everyone notices when it doesn't — inconsistent buttons, mismatched colors, developers filling design gaps with their own judgment. Building the system before the screens was the most important decision. Every screen after it is faster, more consistent, and easier to hand off.
02
45 years is a superpower, not a constraint
I initially framed the legacy as something to work around. Wrong. No competitor can claim 1979. The reframe: don't modernize the brand — amplify what was already true. The dark editorial hero, the "Since 1979" badge, the story section — all make longevity feel like a luxury asset, not a liability.
03
Stakeholder trust is earned through iteration, not persuasion
The color direction was rejected 3 times. Not because my first proposal was wrong — but because the CEO needed to live through the iterations to trust the destination. Showing the journey, not just the answer, is how you bring senior stakeholders along. The most important skill I've developed at Rajbhog.

What's Coming Next

In Progress
Website hi-fi — full catalog + checkout + story
Moving all 5 screens into full hi-fi. Product detail page, checkout, catering inquiry, and the Our Story section. Target: Q3 2026.
In Progress
App — hi-fi prototype, 5 flows
Gift Builder, Occasion Navigator, Fresh Today, Reorder, and B2B Wholesale Mode wireframed and moving to hi-fi. User testing Q4 2026.
Planned
Brand guidelines — all 3 brands
Complete PDF — Rajbhog Foods, Nomad Cuisine, and B2B wholesale. Logo system, color, typography, photography direction, copy voice guide.
Planned
Usability testing — 8 participant study
Moderated study with South Asian-American participants (35–60, occasion-driven buyers) to validate IA, navigation, and Gift Builder before dev handoff.
← Nomad Cuisine Flite →