Problem Statement
The ExxonMobil Brand Design Team sought to create a new set of sustainability-focused web pages that would feel softer, more personal, and engaging - a departure from the existing masculine, technical and structured design language used across the company's website.
The challenge was to reimagine the look, feel, and tone of the sustainability content to better connect with audiences in a more approachable, human-centered way, while still maintaining brand consistency.
This required:
- Evolving the visual design to be more fluid and inviting, moving away from rigid, industrial aesthetics.
- Adjusting the voice and tone to be less technical and more engaging, making sustainability efforts feel more relatable to ExxonMobil’s diverse audience.
- Ensuring alignment with UX best practices, accessibility standards and business objectives, while differentiating the sustainability section from the rest of the corporate website.
My contributions
“This wasn’t about decorating sustainability - it was about designing trust. We translated complex goals into something real, relatable and resonant.”
As lead UX Strategist, I created the end-to-end experience including all research and design artifacts and developed the product roadmap aligned with the go-to-market strategy of the Consumer Lubes - Brand and Customer Experience team goals and market strategy.
- Designed low and high-fidelity prototypes using Figma & Adobe XD to visualize and refine digital experiences
- Developed personas and customer journey maps, aligning product features with real user needs
- Implemented SEO and data-driven UX strategies, ensuring products are discoverable and high-performing
- Advocated for accessibility best practices, ensuring inclusive design across all digital platforms
The Original Ask
The project lead was inspired by the sustainability website for the Finished Lubricants organization but was looking to push the design towards feeling more human, approachable and emotionally resonant; whereas the Finished Lubricants designs felt more blocky, corporate and rigid.
Newly designed components
The new design components helped bridge the gap between corporate identity and human storytelling, creating a web experience that invites users to engage with ExxonMobil’s commitment to sustainability in a more meaningful and approachable way. The best part? The Consumer Lubes team did not have a modern, workable design system. These new design components, built in Figma, formed the component library that would later stand up the team's first-ever design system - a product which I owned as part of the design system governance team.
Design Iterations
We went through a series of design iterations, starting at 'the end' - meaning, What design do we hope to achieve without constraints? From there, we had to trim back the design to align with team capabilities and lead time, alongside legal and project stakeholder feedback. To account for these constraints, the final design landed in between the space of 'nice to have' and 'fastest to market.'
Impact & Reflection
Designing for sustainability requires more than storytelling - it demands trust-building.
In this project, we had to walk the fine line between corporate credibility and human connection, all within a strict brand and CMS framework. I learned how to design for impact in low-control environments, advocate for softer UX patterns in enterprise contexts and keep users at the center - even when the message is complex. More than a visual redesign, this was a lesson in restraint, alignment and building emotional resonance into hard-edged content.
- Enhanced usability and engagement, leading to a increase in user satisfaction
- Developed and integrated UX design systems, improving consistency across enterprise platforms
- Streamlined user journeys, reducing friction and increasing task completion rates
