ABOUT THE PROJECT:
The Old Navy Style Guides are a comprehensive, multi-functional toolkit that integrates brand identity, design systems, design thinking, frameworks, visual strategies, product data, and workflow solutions.
Additionally, they are also informed by customer research and continuous customer feedback, making it a living document that evolves to meet business needs.
For context there are two major workflows that inform the style guides that take place in two different containers. One is at corporate and the other one is in the field.
On the headquarters side, we have the design team working in close partnership with the visual merchandising team to align on content, strategy and new product information. Meanwhile, on the field side, visual merchandising managers and logistics teams partner together to implement and bring to life corporate’s direction.
This is why the style guides act as the single source of truth for cross-functional teams, because it aligns visual and brand strategy with customer-facing execution, ensuring 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 and CONTEXT:
The Style Guides are developed in response to the need for consistency, clarity, and alignment across all in-store experiences. Operating at scale, Old Navy relies on numerous cross-functional teams, including Store Operations, Logistics, and Marketing to set up and keep up with updates on brand guidelines.
The Style Guide is the anchor outlining seasonal visual strategies and brand guidelines ensuring each store delivers a cohesive, on-brand customer journey. From managing customer-facing elements to overall store layout, every detail is shaped by insights from customer research. These guides play a critical role in informing seasonal planning, logistics, and execution across the organization worldwide.
The Style Guides include:
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 roll outs stay consistent, the style guides supports operational efficiency and helps drive sales by aligning the in-store experience with Old Navy’s overarching business goals. It’s not just a toolkit, it’s a business strategic asset that turns the brand vision into tangible, shoppable environments that resonate with customers and reinforce brand loyalty.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM:
In order to understand the problem we are aiming to solve, you need to understand that there is a massive big picture workflow process that takes place behind the scenes.
In the container of the big picture, the two main players making things happen are first headquarters and second the stores, here we have teams working together on two major separate moving parts.
On one side, you have corporate teams partnering up with design to synthesize new product information based on research and business goals. On the other, you have the field teams working together to execute this vision, but most importantly to place the massive amount of units that arrived in stores, the new product that desperately needs to be placed on the floor.
This is when the purpose of the style guide here becomes the vehicle for communication corporate uses to support and solve the problem the stores on the field are facing.
Key Players for every Workflow:
Corporate’s Visual Merchandising Team
Corporate’s Creative Design Team
Field’s Visual Merchandising Team
Field’s Logistics Team
Workflows consist of HQ + Field = context
The Problem Formula:
New Merch get delivered to Stores > Stores sit on new Merchandise > Stores = lost and confused about placement and direction + Stores need updated Brand Guidelines for the new merch + Stores need Direction = STYLE GUIDE TO THE RESCUE > Style Guide packed with Visual Strategy for Jenny > Excellent customer experience
Every New Season Process:
HQ Visual Merch Team Partners up with > Visual Comms Design Team > Design Creates Style Guide > Style Guides > go to > Stores > Store Logistics Manager a + Visual Merchandising Managers receive Style Guides > Merch teams executes visual strategy on a field store level
V comms Designers + Merch HQ Team = style guide
Style guides + Visual strategy =Stores
Stores = Visual merchandising Managers and their teams + Logistics Manager
Hence, the problem we are trying to solve with the style guide is…
The Logistics and Visual Merchandising Managers are sitting on new merchandise that arrived in the amount of many units that needs to be placed on the sales floor. But, Visual Merchandising teams are left scrambling not knowing where to place the new product, or how to display it in a way that represents Old Navy’s brand guidelines, so that Jenny can immerse herself in the store customer experience.
The lack of clear guidance leads to inconsistent product placement, disorganized floor sets, delayed execution, misuse of payroll, and a confusing in-store layouts. Without a cohesive visual merchandising strategy, teams struggle to present merchandise in a way that captivates customers and drives sales.
My Role:
UX Designer / UI Designer / Visual designer
My unique background played a role in joining the design team because it was such a unique environment where this deisnger role required the designer to understand visual merchandising and the process that takes place on the field. I had to understand not only design principles but the backend visual merchandising process. Before I received my degree in design, I used to work for Gap Inc corporate as a visual merchandising manager
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
——————-
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