Redesigning the Partner Portal
A full redesign of Best Buy’s internal vendor platform to improve usability, reduce maintenance, and support scalable collaboration.
September 2023 - December 2024
5 min read
Overview
After five years without a major update, Best Buy’s Partner Portal, the central hub for vendor-facing policies, guidelines, and operational tools, was no longer meeting the needs of its users or the business. Navigation was confusing, content was duplicated, and updates were hard to manage.
As the sole UX designer on the project, I led strategy, research, and execution for a full redesign. My goal was to create a modular system that would improve usability for vendors while dramatically reducing internal content maintenance.
The sprint team included myself (UX Designer), department leads from Legal, Operations, and Brand, and partner-facing content managers.
Solution at a Glance
Problem
Every team had built content differently, leading to inconsistent navigation and duplicated information. Vendors struggled to find what they needed, and internal teams spent too much time maintaining content.
Solution: A System Built to Scale
I designed reusable page templates and 40+ modular components to support scalable content creation. These building blocks cut down on redundant layouts, enabled faster updates, and improved overall readability.
System Highlights
A refreshed interface aligned to Best Buy’s 2024 rebrand
A live guidance library with component best practices
Built-in feedback loops so content admins can suggest improvements
The system now powers a more usable, trustworthy portal for vendor partners—and a more sustainable workflow for internal teams.
Home
Best Buy US
Best Buy Canada
Exclusive Brands
US Merchandising
Non-Merchandising
US Carriers
Department
Discovery
Uncovering what vendors and stakeholders really needed
I started by interviewing vendors across categories to learn what content they relied on most and where they struggled. I also spoke with internal content owners to understand operational pain points like duplicated information, unclear ownership, and inconsistent formatting.
Key Findings
❌ Fragmented structure: Teams created pages independently, resulting in redundant layouts and navigation confusion
❌ Outdated design: The portal hadn't been refreshed in five years, making critical content hard to scan and trust
Strategy & Design
Building for structure, scalability, and flexibility
To streamline the user experience and reduce operational overhead, I designed a set of templates and 40+ modular components. These were tested with real content and designed to be reconfigured depending on the needs of a given vendor group, topic, or department.
Templates for common page types (e.g. regions, partners, departments)
Modular components that stack responsively and adapt to different types of content
Style updates aligned to Best Buy’s 2024 brand system (colors, type, iconography)
Landing page header
Content block
News block
Department header
Resources accordion
Apps block
Component Guidance Library
Each component comes with usage guidance, live previews, best practices, and accessibility notes. This gave content teams the clarity they needed to create high-quality, on-brand pages without requiring constant design support.
We also added a feedback loop for content admins to report issues or request enhancements, ensuring the system continues to evolve as needs change.
Collaboration & Iteration
I ran multiple feedback sessions with stakeholders from Legal, Ops, Brand, and Engineering. We focused each round on:
Reducing redundant or outdated content
Improving page structure and visual hierarchy
Stress-testing layouts with live content
This process helped align teams early and made it easier to move quickly during build.
The Outcome
The redesigned Partner Portal launched in February 2025. It now provides a modern, consistent, and easy-to-maintain hub for Best Buy’s vendor partners. Internal teams report clearer content ownership, and vendors are completing key tasks faster and more successfully.
Results
+42% increase in task completion (usability tested)
30% faster time-on-task for common workflows
75%+ of new content built using shared templates
100% alignment with the 2024 Best Buy design system
Reflection
This project deepened my experience in designing systems for scale. By anchoring the work in vendor workflows and creating flexible, reusable structures, I helped launch a solution that’s more usable for our partners and more sustainable for the business. It’s also given internal teams a stronger foundation to keep evolving the platform without starting from scratch.
