ABOUT THE PROJECT:
The Old Navy Style Guides go beyond a traditional style guide because it is a comprehensive, multi-functional toolkit that integrates brand identity, design systems, visual merchandising strategy, product information, and workflow solutions. These style guides are also informed by customer research and continuous feedback, making them living documents that evolve to meet business needs.
Developed by headquarters Design team in partnership with Visual Merchandising and field stores, the style guides serve a strategic visual and merchandising toolkit that drives cohesion across all in-store experiences. Acting as the single source of truth for cross-functional teams, aligning visual and brand strategy with customer-facing execution, ensuring that every Old Navy store delivers a consistent, compelling, and on-brand experience for our core customer: Jenny, a busy mom who values ease, style, and affordability.
PURPOSE + CONTEXT:
The Old Navy Style Guide was developed in response to the need for consistency, clarity, and alignment across the brand’s in-store experiences. As Old Navy operates at scale with numerous cross-functional teams from Design and Visual Merchandising to Store Operations, Logistics and Marketing there was a clear need for a centralized resource to guide how the brand shows up visually and experientially in every store. Outlining seasonal visual strategies and brand guidelines designed to ensure every store delivers an on-brand customer journey. From customer-facing elements to store layout, every aspect is informed by insights gathered from in-store customer research. It truly serves as the anchor for seasonal planning, logistics and execution.
The Style Guide was created to bridge gaps between creative direction and store execution, bringing together visual identity, seasonal strategy, product information, and research-based insights to ensure that every team is working from the same foundation, ultimately delivering a seamless, customer-focused experience for Old Navy’s core customer.
The Style Guide includes:
Store Layouts and Visual Mapping
Marketing Integration and Seasonal Strategy
Visual Merchandising Guidelines and How-Tos
Product Data and Product Information
Key Merchandising Elements and Product Presentation Standards
Beyond making sure everything stays consistent, the style guide supports operational efficiency and helps drive sales by aligning the in-store experience with Old Navy’s overarching business goals. It is not just a toolkit, it is a strategic asset that turns the brand vision into tangible, shoppable environments that resonate with customers and reinforce brand loyalty.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM:
The Style Guide translates high-level concepts into actionable in-store strategies for the Field Visual Merchandising and Logistics teams. It covers everything from store layouts and product presentation standards to marketing integration and merchandising how-tos. The Style Guide is a foundational asset that drives operational efficiency, enhances the customer experience, and supports business goals.
One of the primary users of the style guide is the Field Visual Merchandising manager, who plays a key role in translating high-level brand direction into engaging in-store experiences. The field stores operate by also involving the Logistics manager into a workflow that takes care of backend logistics preparing fresh products for the Visual Merchandising teams. By referencing the style guides, these teams are empowered to consistently execute the brand’s seasonal concepts, helping to elevate the shopping journey for Old Navy’s core customer.
The challenge is that in-store Visual Managers frequently receive large shipments containing hundreds of new units, yet are given little to no direction on how or where to display the product. This lack of clear guidance leads to inconsistent product placement, disorganized floor sets, delayed execution, and a confusing in-store experience. Without a cohesive visual merchandising strategy, teams struggle to present merchandise in a way that captivates customers and drives sales. As a result, new products often remain in boxes, store environments feel disconnected, and the immersive experience that customers like Jenny expect is lost. This ultimately leads to missed opportunities to create brand impact and increase revenue.
My Role:
UX Designer / UI Designer / Visual designer
I joined the design team just as the COVID-19 pandemic began, and my role quickly evolved to support the Director of Visual Communication in adapting and refreshing the company’s style guide for a fully remote workflow.
The style guide, a key tool used by the visual merchandising and creative team, had previously existed as a physical resource that was updated each season. My first major task was to help migrate this content into digital platforms, ensuring it remained accessible, collaborative, and easy to update.
Using tools like Miro for collaborative brainstorming and Airtable for organizing and managing visual and product data, we restructured the style guide into a digital-first format that could scale across teams. This not only streamlined the update process each season but also introduced a new layer of UX thinking that made the style guide more intuitive and interactive for users navigating remotely.
I also worked on exploring new ways to visually communicate design principles. We used illustrations, mockups, and digital environments to keep our workflows fluid and engaging. These enhancements helped improve cross-functional alignment and ensured that even from home, our visual language remained strong, consistent, and easy to interpret.
CREDITS:
TOOLS USED:
Figma, Adobe XD, Miro, Adobe Illustrator
The Visual Design - Process - Style Guide
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the UX Design process
APPROACH
Design Thinking Process
Discover
User research
Ideate
Usability testing
Visual Design
DISCOVER
UX Competitive Analysis
USER STORIES
USER RESEARCH
surveys & user interviews
Affinity Map
User Personas
Mental Models and User Journey Map
Task Analysis & User Flows
USER RESEARCH
IDEATION
Sitemap
Wireframing
Prototyping
USABILITY TESTING
Goal
Test Objective
Methodology
Usability test results: Findings & Insights
Conclusion
Preference Test
Problem Statement:
In-store visual managers received boxes of shipment with large amounts of units, and now they are sitting on new product that needs to be placed on to the sales floor, but the visual teams are left scrambling, not knowing where to place or how to display the product without a visual strategy to direct them, so that Jenny (persona) can have an exceptional customer experience.
Purpose and Context:
The product Style Guide is a project I worked on with Old Navy’s Visual Communications team in the midst of the pandemic. Our aim was to create a document that was easy to follow, but flexible enough for stores to make their own decisions. The intention was to support visual teams with “how-to” visual tutorials and direction for an immersive customer experience where our persona Jenny could feel, touch and try on the product.
Objective:
The goal of the Style Guide was to have it be the primary source of all truth for Old Navy’s brand. It includes an array of the brand guidelines, best practices with visual direction. During the pandemic I spent most of the quarantine testing different elements to act as placeholders for things we didn’t have access to in the office. I learned how to problem solve in real time by testing for stores, improving my synthesizing skills and implementing user feedback to enhance the customer experience which takes business goals and missed opportunities into consideration.
Tools: Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Miro, Airtable, Figma
My Role: UX Designer / UI Designer / Visual designer
Visual Design - Process - Style Guide