Overview
Vale.com was outdated, had confusing navigation, and had accumulated unnecessary pages over the years. The need to migrate the hosting platform combined with Vale's official rebrand created the opportunity for a complete redesign. Rebuilding the site from scratch with a focus on accessibility, modularity, and global presence.
The result is a 100% accessible, multilingual website customized for each country where Vale operates, built on a modular component system that allows new pages to be created autonomously in the future.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
💪 Equipe de design: Isabel Freitas (squad lead) + 11 designers — 12 total
🛠️ Ferramentas: Figma, Adobe XD, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
📅 Duração do projeto: 1 ano
🎯Atividades: Desk Research, Wireframing, Microinteractions, Motion Design, Design System, Interaction Design, Accessibility, Platform migration
✅ Resultados: Global redesign of vale.com. Delivered in parallel with the brand's official rebranding.
🛠️ Ferramentas: Figma, Adobe XD, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
📅 Duração do projeto: 1 ano
🎯Atividades: Desk Research, Wireframing, Microinteractions, Motion Design, Design System, Interaction Design, Accessibility, Platform migration
✅ Resultados: Global redesign of vale.com. Delivered in parallel with the brand's official rebranding.
The challenge
The redesign ran in parallel with Vale's official rebranding, requiring constant alignment with the brand identity team, adapting design decisions in real time as new guidelines were being defined. At the same time, the entire information architecture had to be restructured: unnecessary pages were eliminated and navigation was rebuilt to be clearer and more intuitive.
The site also needed to be simultaneously global and local, reflecting the reality of each country where Vale is present, while meeting modern accessibility standards so the content could reach everyone on equal terms.
My role
I joined the project as squad lead within a team of 12 designers, responsible for leading a group of 4 designers through low-fidelity wireframing, element componentization, and Design System development, all adapted in real time to the evolving rebranding guidelines.
I was solely responsible for all motion design on the project, including the production of the launch campaign for the new vale.com.
Process
The project began with desk research to map user needs and benchmark market best practices. From those insights, we structured the wireframes that shaped the new information architecture, leaner, with redundant pages removed and navigation flows redesigned from the ground up.
Componentization was a core strategic decision: building modular elements that would allow the content team to assemble new pages in the future without relying on development, ensuring long-term scalability and visual consistency.
Consistency and efficiency
The vale.com Design System was built in close adaptation to the new rebranding guidelines; a process of continuous alignment with Vale's brand identity team while the new visual identity was still being finalized. We developed a full component library covering color system, typography (Vale Sans), iconography, buttons, inputs, and error, warning, and success states, all documented to ensure visual consistency across every page and enable autonomous page-building in the future. The result is a scalable system that maintains visual cohesion regardless of who assembles the page.
Result
New vale.com launched in 2024. 100% accessible, with an improved search experience, a dedicated area for documents and reports, integrated ESG agenda, and a customized presence in every country where Vale operates. A site built to last and grow autonomously.
