Rexel USA™

Project Overview: Scaling Quality & Global Vision

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The Challenge: Design Debt and Fragmented Ecosystems

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‍The Rexel USA e-commerce platform was facing a critical decline in operational efficiency due to significant design debt and a lack of component standardization. This inconsistency slowed feature velocity and hindered the organization's ability to meet strategic B2B goals across its US and international platforms. My mandate as a Senior UX Designer was to architect a unified Design System and lead high-impact redesigns that would move the needle on conversion while aligning with global product strategy.

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My Strategic Role

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‍As the lead strategic individual contributor for a 12-month rollout, I operated at the intersection of US engineering and Global (Paris) product leadership. My responsibilities spanned from technical UI auditing to high-visibility conceptual design for international trade shows. I acted as the bridge between abstract business goals and a tangible, scalable design language that could serve Rexel’s global B2B constituents.

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The Three Pillars of Innovation

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• Foundational Quality: Architecting and implementing a Design System as the single source of truth to reduce redundant code and ensure WCAG accessibility.
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• Conversion Optimization: Leading the conceptual redesign of the high-traffic Product Listing Page (PLP) to improve B2B product discoverability.
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• Future-State Vision: Partnering with Global Product Owners in Paris to design an innovative Homepage Dashboard for thousands of international stakeholders.

Exploration & Discovery: Auditing design debt and establishing a scalable system foundation

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Identifying fragmentation

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I initiated a comprehensive UI audit across Rexel’s U.S. platforms and documented widespread inconsistencies in core components, including dozens of button variations and fragmented typography and spacing patterns. This helped demonstrate that the existing “high-velocity” workflow was actually slowing delivery by forcing engineering teams to recreate styling for nearly every new feature.

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Defining a shared source of truth

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Because a design system requires governance as much as visual consistency, I facilitated alignment sessions with U.S. and global product partners to define how the system would function as a shared source of truth while supporting WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards across the platform.

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Enabling multi-brand scalability

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Rather than starting with mockups, I structured the design token foundation for color, spacing, and typography in a brand-agnostic way so the system could scale beyond a single brand and support Rexel’s broader portfolio while reducing future design debt across implementations.

UX Process: Establishing governance to scale the design system globally

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To address the design debt identified during the audit, I established a governance and contribution model that transformed the component library into a scalable system with a clear single source of truth across design and engineering. This reduced front-end build time per sprint by roughly 40% and helped align U.S. teams with global product leadership in Paris, where I also facilitated design sessions for the Innovation Dashboard.

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By defining the information architecture and technical logic for high-traffic surfaces like the PLP, I created a reusable structural foundation that reduced discovery time for future e-commerce optimization sprints by weeks.

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Design System: Governance & Contribution Flow

Strategic Impact: Quantified Efficiency & Global Maturity

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Driving Operational Excellence

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‍The implementation of the Rexel Design System and the strategic governance model transformed the organization’s digital output. By establishing a standardized component library, we achieved an estimated 40% reduction in Front-End build time per sprint. This allowed engineering teams to pivot from styling basic UI elements to building high-value business features, significantly increasing the overall velocity of the product roadmap.

Eliminating Debt & Ensuring Compliance

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‍By unifying a fragmented B2B ecosystem into a single source of truth, I successfully reduced design debt by approximately 60%. Crucially, I established and enforced the organization’s first comprehensive set of WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards. This not only mitigated legal risk but ensured the platform was usable for the entire spectrum of Rexel’s B2B customer base, reflecting a newfound level of design maturity across U.S. and global platforms.

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Global Vision & Accelerated Discovery

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‍The Future Homepage Innovation Dashboard was showcased to thousands of international stakeholders in Paris, successfully aligning the U.S. product roadmap with global digital strategy. Additionally, the new Product Listing Page (PLP) architecture provided a validated blueprint that reduced the discovery and design phase for future e-commerce optimization sprints by weeks, ensuring Rexel could respond to market needs with unprecedented speed.

Reflections: Lessons in Systems Thinking

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• Scalability over Speed: I learned that while "moving fast" is a goal, moving fast without a system creates debt that eventually halts progress.
• The Designer as a Bridge: This project solidified my ability to navigate complex stakeholder landscapes, proving that a Senior Designer's value often lies in facilitating consensus between technical teams and international leadership.