The Visual Journal is an internal website used to communicate product placement and signage guidance to all REI field employees

The retail landscape remains unpredictable due to the lasting effects of COVID-19, requiring stores to pivot quickly to meet changing inventory and customer demand. With a remote workforce and thousands of new field employees nationwide, effective communication is crucial. Visual merchandising drives sales and customer conversion, and providing clear resources ensures these best practices reach the sales floor.

Hired in 2019, I designed this WordPress VIP-hosted website and mobile web-clip, led its communication strategy, and created all Figma templates and libraries used by the team to draft content and training resources.

Research & Site Traffic

I set up Adobe Analytics and ran a survey with 327 volunteer responses, identifying mobile UX, homepage visibility, and content linking as key improvements. I led a UX redesign with a web developer, tested prototypes with store teams, and facilitated the site rollout to all retail.

The site serves mostly sales associates and store leadership. Traffic grew from 80,000 visits in 2021 to over 380,000 by 2024.

UX Design & Accessibility

The website needed to be mobile-first, user-friendly, and mirror the store’s physical layout—since that’s how employees find guidance. Most users access it via iPhones, though iPads and desktops are also used. With 35 headquarters content contributors and hundreds of daily viewers, I designed a tool that’s easy for both my team to manage and field employees to use. Drawing on my WCAG and assistive tech experience, I prioritized accessibility, using components from REI’s Cedar Design System. Features like recommended reading, tagging, and metadata help connect resources and create a smooth user experience.

Login

At sign-on, users complete a brief profile and choose an avatar from REI brand illustrations. This data helps us tailor content.

Home Page

The homepage features newsfeed blocks with the latest training and floorset displays, pinned key resources, and links to users’ recently viewed pages. A survey revealed the need to help users easily return to their previous page after breaks or interruptions during floorset work.

Notifications

Timely updates trigger notifications under the bell icon, alerting users to late-breaking changes and linking to relevant site content.

Search

The Visual Journal features an Elasticsearch-powered search with filters to help users quickly find and refine posts or displays.

Standards & Guides

The ‘Standards & Guides’ page is a directory of ongoing visual merchandising guides and training resources, designed for frequent reference to support sales floor execution and decisions. It hosts all store and department standards, along with other essential VM materials.

Floorset

Seasonal visual merchandising guidance is posted in the Floorset section, detailing product placement and featured fixtures. Updated year-round to align with merchandising, marketing, and sales events, the Floorset serves as an auditing tool with ‘latest updates’ for upcoming changes and ‘today on the floor’ for current setups. I added visual cues to help users quickly spot edits from feedback or inventory changes.

Support

This page allows users to contact the VM Communications and Training team for support. If answers aren’t found on the Visual Journal, users can reach out via the contact form. A separate feedback form lets users submit ideas to improve the platform and programming.