Unifying the Sedex Platform Experience for Global Supply Chains
​The Brief
Sedex maintained critical ethical supply chain data across three disconnected platforms. This fragmentation caused:
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High cognitive load and confusion for 80,000+ global members.
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Inconsistent language and terminology across silos.
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Fragmented user journeys that hindered compliance tracking.
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The Business Goal
Consolidate these experiences into a cohesive platform to drastically improve clarity, efficiency and access to actionable risk data.​​
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Role: Senior Content Designer
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Project Timeframe: 6 Months
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Tools: Zeroheight, User Testing, Figma, Miro
​The Content Design Challenge
Turn a technical "lift-and-shift" into an opportunity to address deep-seated usability and Information Architecture (IA) problems.​​
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Key Opportunities
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Redefine IA and Structure: Establish clear navigational patterns and logical data groupings.
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Align Terminology: Standardise naming conventions across all flows and member types.
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Improve Usability: Rewrite dashboard labels, tooltips and system messaging to reduce ambiguity.
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Build Scalable Systems: Embed content patterns and Tone of Voice (ToV) guidelines into the new DS.
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Core "How Might We" Questions:
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How might we enable members to confidently track supplier data they can trust?
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How might we make navigating the suite of compliance tools easier?
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How might we help users prioritise where to focus their attention (e.g. high-risk sites)?
Process and methodology​
Discovery & Audit
I began with a comprehensive content audit of the three legacy platforms, focusing specifically on critical data labels, report names, and navigation menus. I documented inconsistencies in terms like 'SAQ status,' 'Audit status,' and risk indicators (e.g., 'RAG' vs. 'Criticality'). I also conducted competitor analysis to understand best practices for complex B2B data visualisation and reporting structures.
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Content-Led Validation & IA
To de-risk the new platform's navigation, I led extensive user testing on the proposed structure:
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Card Sorting: Used with users to group key data elements (e.g., Audit Status, Membership Renewals, SAQ Completion) into logical categories. This directly informed the top-level navigation structure.
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Tree Testing: Tested the proposed new Information Architecture (IA) to validate if users could quickly find crucial information like 'Country Risk' or 'Audit Findings' using the new labels. This confirmed the need to consolidate scattered functions into clearer categories like Performance, Reports, and Pre-assessment.
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Content Design in Action
The key content interventions focused on removing ambiguity across dashboards and reporting:
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KPI Simplification: Simplified complex dashboard labels (e.g. Membership renewals, SAQ completion, Audit status) and added supporting microcopy/tooltips to clearly define each metric.
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Risk Terminology Alignment: Standardised risk language across the platform, ensuring "Criticality" levels matched the visual indicators in all tables and reports.
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Navigation Tailoring: Designed separate, tailored navigation menus for different users, ensuring they only saw the entry points relevant to them.​
Scaling Through Systems​
To ensure clarity post-launch, I embedded content design into the product development lifecycle:
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Design System Integration: Collaborated with the Design System team to create a dedicated Content pillar within the new Zeroheight Axis design system.
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ToV & Component Patterns: Developed guidelines for Tone of Voice, naming conventions, and reusable copy patterns for common components like error messages and modals. This operationalised clarity, enabling product managers and engineers to write consistent copy without direct content designer oversight.
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Outcome and Impact
The project successfully achieved its core goals by addressing fundamental UX challenges through an effective content strategy.
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Unified Experience: Successfully consolidated three siloed platforms into a single, cohesive interface.
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Reduced Cognitive Load: Simplified labelling and navigation led to greater user confidence and efficiency in managing global supply chain compliance.
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Scalable Foundation: Content Design was established as a core, early pillar in the product delivery process, setting a user-first foundation for all future feature enhancements.
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Operational Clarity: The embedded content systems ensured consistency for international teams and reduced the long-term potential for support tickets related to ambiguous system messages.