Elsevier. Design direction, innovation, design systems


I helped academics and researchers to discover, review, manage papers and publish their own work, managing a multidisciplinary team of 21.
This experience thought me to lead a team through change and transformation, from hiring to delivering the innovation strategy (GenAI) for ScienceDirect, Knovel, Mendeley and Journal Branded Solutions.

My role

Design direction, Design manager, Principal designer

Design direction


Through relentless collaboration I’ve set up the design direction for ScienceDirect, Knovel, Mendeley and Journal Branded Solutions, making sure that each year design contributed strategically to each product strategy. What we did included:

  • always representing our customers’ voice, integrating it with business decisions and product development. We anchored all design decisions in data and research.

  • Connecting design direction with the overall portfolio and product strategy, fulfilling business objectives while prioritising customer needs.

  • Constantly evolving the design language, in connection with the overall branding strategy of Elsevier and each individual product’s identity. This created a cohesive user experience across products, keeping accessibility embedded into the design thinking.

Innovation

We focused on GenAI, balancing long term and short term vision, leveraging all learnings we gathered from explorations, iterations, failing at speed. I enabled the design team to:

  • make an impact, design was involved at early stages of the innovation process, we brought our customers’ voice in the conversation so that all innovation bets were based on customers’ needs and were connected to the researcher’s workflow.

  • collaborate effectively, fostering a strong collaboration between design, product, and technology teams. We made sure to involve each team member in early exploratory research, building empathy through workshops, reflecting on customers’ needs together.

  • understand innovation through data, encouraging adoption of advanced analytics tools, so we made sure we guide the decision making process, with the view to speed up experimentation, to become faster and more comfortable with failure. 

Team management

I worked with everybody in my team, developing each individual’s career path within Elsevier and beyond, so that all designers feel empowered to do their best work. This involved:

  • Ongoing focus on collaborative team culture, encouraging knowledge sharing, curiosity, and continuous feedback, while promoting a psychologically safe working environment.

  • Strategic career development, I worked with all my reports to set up individual objectives and career paths, aligning personal growth with organisational needs.

  • Organisational design, I regularly reviewed team’s topology to make sure that each designer was well placed in the organisation, keeping voluntary attrition below 2% in the last three years. 

Design System Strategy

Before being Design Director for our Academics and Researchers products, I crafted the strategy and business case for the Design System for our group, which then evolved in what is the design system for Academic and Government products. This involved:

  • Developing initial business case for the Design System, to improve the experience of designers and engineers, and build consensus across senior stakeholders. This led the business to invest in the project, creating a small dedicated team.

  • We created a thriving community of practice, including designers and engineers. We regularly reviewed the design language across products, developing a full set of design fundamentals and tokens.

  • I guided the adoption strategy at product level, consolidating the adoptions models and roadmap for ScienceDirect, Knovel, Mendeley and Journal Branded solutions.

Outcome

ScienceDirect delivered in Q1 2025 ScienceDirect AI. This was based on the work that we have done as a team while I was there.

Adoption of Graphene, design system for the Academic and Government products. Based on the initial business case I created, the business progressed with build and adoption for all products.

A long lasting relationship with many colleagues, with whom I am still in touch, to have a coffee and a chat when I am in Amsterdam or they are in London.