H-E-B Newsroom

Overview

As part of H-E-B’s communications evolution, I led a full redesign of the Newsroom’s digital presence and brand expression. The goal was to transform an inconsistent, text-heavy, developer-assembled site into a modern communication platform that reflects H-E-B’s values, improves accessibility, and supports storytelling across multiple teams.

Context & Challenge

The original site was built without design or UX direction, resulting in:

• Unstructured navigation

• A “kitchen sink” homepage with no hierarchy

• Inconsistent layout patterns

• Poorly prioritized hero and “quick facts” content

• Mobile responsiveness as an afterthought

• Ambiguous or absent branding

• Long journalistic posts with no visual scaffolding

• No strategic social media presence — just photos + long captions

The platform needed to evolve into:

• A cohesive, scalable communication system

• A site with visual clarity and navigational logic

• A destination that leadership could rely on for company storytelling
  
  

Objectives

• Establish a recognizable, unified brand expression

• Create a logical content hierarchy and navigational structure

• Improve readability, accessibility, and cross-device responsiveness

• Build visual systems for web and social media

• Position the Newsroom as a trusted, go-to information hub
  
  

Collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration included:

• Public Affairs Managers

• Newsroom External Communications Manager

• Digital Web Development Team

My responsibilities included design leadership and strategic framing, while Digital partnered on technical implementation.

My Role & Responsibilities

I led the visual and strategic direction, including:

• Visual strategy + brand architecture

• Content hierarchy + navigation framework

• Responsive UI/UX components and layout grids

• Iconography, color, and typography systems

• Photography tone and usage direction

• Social media design system (templates, post formats, iconography)

• Front-end guidance + tool recommendations to Digital
  
  

Process & Approach

The redesign was phased strategically:

Phase 1 — Brand & Social Foundation

• Established tone, color system, iconography

• Designed scalable templates for post types

• Formalized visual language and content hierarchy

Phase 2 — Website UI/UX

• Rebuilt page architecture for clarity and prioritization

• Improved homepage hierarchy for quick information absorption

• Redesigned responsive components for mobile-first interaction

• Introduced gallery/media standards

A key challenge was stakeholder education — I had to explain the WHY behind improved tools and UX standards to non-design decision-makers. Securing approvals required advocacy, prototyping, and phased implementation.

Wins

• Recognizable and consistent branding across web and social

• Optimized navigation with clearer page relationships and faster content discovery

• Responsive design patterns that improved reading and browsing on mobile

• Template-driven social posts that accelerated content output and improved clarity
  
  

Impact

• The Newsroom has become the primary internal and external reference point for H-E-B announcements, updates, and major company initiatives

• Leadership regularly uses the Newsroom as a source of record

• Social presence has grown significantly — increasing over 535%, adding 26K+ new followers, and driving 21M+ views and 489K interactions organically over 4.75 years

• Content production has scaled through consistent templates and modular design
  
  

Metrics (Summary)

• Approx. 6 major updates published monthly, generating sustained earned media across Texas

• Significant increases in engagement on @hebnewsroom (2–3% average engagement rate)

• 82–85% organic interaction, indicating strong audience trust

• Content regularly reaches millions of users annually

These outcomes are especially notable considering H-E-B operates only in Texas & Mexico yet remains one of the top-ranked grocery retailers nationally by Forbes and the Shelby Report.

Reflections, Challenges & Learnings

• “Building the plane in the air” required strategic phasing and stakeholder education

• Brand-first rollout allowed teams to adopt the new system before UI updates

• Creating design-forward tools enabled Digital to accelerate development

• Educating non-design leaders strengthened buy-in and improved long-term scalability

• The redesign proved that clarity, usability, and consistency drive trust and engagement