DHL.com

Global Redesign of DHL main website

The official website of DHL, a global logistics and courier company with $84B EUR in annual revenue.

Over a 5-year partnership, we collaborated with DHL.com and their five business units to align business and content needs. From this foundation, I designed a comprehensive design system tailored for their Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).

Client

DHL

Role

Lead UI Designer

Duration

2020 – 2024

View the Live Site

Skills Used

Collaborative Ideation

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Figma Design Systems & Variables

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop

Sketch

Sketch

The Design Challenge

Collaborating with DHL presented unique challenges due to their complex, multi-layered business structure. This required a flexible and agile design approach, continually evolving to address expanding content needs and increasingly complex scenarios. Key challenges included:

Creating a cohesive design system for AEM with cross-functional components that aligned with brand standards while supporting reuse across diverse content types.

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Creating a cohesive design system for AEM with cross-functional components that aligned with brand standards while supporting reuse across diverse content types.

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Designing responsive, adaptable layouts that scaled across 150+ countries and supported translation into 40+ languages.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Designing responsive, adaptable layouts that scaled across 150+ countries and supported translation into 40+ languages.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Implementing and maintaining WCAG AA accessibility standards across global design components.

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Implementing and maintaining WCAG AA accessibility standards across global design components.

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Main Takeaways

Designing a project of this scale required close collaboration—both within our team and with DHL. Throughout the process, I gained several key insights:

I learned that the sooner and more often you ask for feedback, the better your designs become. Every conversation sharpened my perspective and strengthened the final product.

Don’t be afraid to fail, iterate, and improve. This project pushed me to grow—every challenge and misstep shaped me into a stronger, more thoughtful designer.

Don't be afraid to mess up, try again and work for a better solution. I am a different designer at the end of this project as a direct result of my failures and ability to learn and grow from my mistakes.

Don’t be afraid to fail, iterate, and improve. This project pushed me to grow—every challenge and misstep shaped me into a stronger, more thoughtful designer.

As my understanding of DHL deepened, so did the impact of my design decisions—proving that the better you understand the problem, the better you can design the solution.

The more you wholistically understand the problem, the better solution you can design. As I began to understand DHL at a deeper level, my ability to design increased and deepened.

As my understanding of DHL deepened, so did the impact of my design decisions—proving that the better you understand the problem, the better you can design the solution.

Before & After

Creating a Cohesive Design System

Building on DHL’s existing brand system, I designed a comprehensive design system in Figma, defining variables, base and complex components, and establishing the website’s overall structure.

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Adaptable and Flexible Layouts

Page templates and layouts were fully responsive, handling complex content across 154 countries while supporting localization, translation, and diverse product offerings.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

Component Guidance

I provided detailed documentation outlining the new design system and component usage, educating DHL content authors on how to apply the system effectively which supported successful implementation.

Blueprint and Layout Guidance

DHL’s complex requirements called for intentionally designed layouts that balanced flexibility, scalability, and diverse content needs across countries. We developed a system that maintained consistency and recognizable patterns while allowing each page layout to adapt to local variations and offerings.

WCAG AA Compliance

Maintaining WCAG AA compliance was required for multiple countries. Throughout this project I learned to deeply understand the requirements and apply them throughout the system

Design System Strategic Development

Developer Collaboration & Support

View the Live Site