Helping employees shape customers experience
Designing a sales support system for navigating complex product information
Overview
Rolls-Royce sales teams are required to communicate highly complex products and services in live client conversations. Much of this information lives across documents, presentations, and internal systems, making it difficult for sales reps to quickly access, compare, and explain offerings in meetings.
The brief was to design a digital tool that could act as a clear, reliable reference during sales conversations — helping reps navigate complex information confidently, both online and offline. The product was delivered as a shipped MVP, with the expectation that it could be iterated and expanded over time.
Alongside the core sales support experience, the product also included an Innovation Centre feature, extending the original scope to support structured feedback and idea submission from employees.
The challenge
The core challenge wasn’t visual polish — it was complexity.
Sales reps needed to:
- access detailed product and service information quickly
- use the tool during live meetings, often offline
- move between topics without breaking the flow of conversation
At the same time, the information itself was dense and interconnected. Any solution needed to simplify navigation without oversimplifying the content.
There was also a clear requirement to work within Rolls-Royce’s brand and governance standards, ensuring the tool felt credible, restrained, and appropriate for high-value client discussions.
My role
I was the sole designer on the project, responsible for visual design, information architecture, and prototyping.
I worked as part of a wider four-person agency team and partnered closely with our in-house development team to ensure proposed solutions were feasible within scope, delivery timelines, and budget. I also collaborated with the client during the early definition phases, while the client’s internal product team handled delivery on their platform.
While I didn't own content strategy, I conducted interviews with Rolls-Royce employees to understand user needs, preferred features, and real-world constraints — particularly how the tool would be used in live sales environments.
Understanding user needs
Early conversations with sales teams highlighted a consistent set of needs:
- speed and clarity during meetings
- the ability to drill into detail without getting lost
- confidence that information was accurate and up to date
- offline access when required
These insights shaped the structure and interaction model of the tool, prioritising clarity, scannability, and predictable navigation over novelty.
Information architecture and interaction design
Given the complexity of the product data, information architecture was a critical part of the work.
I explored multiple navigation and layout approaches to support different ways of accessing information — whether a rep needed a high-level overview or a deeper technical explanation. The goal was to reduce cognitive load while still allowing access to detail when needed.
Prototypes were used to test how easily users could move between sections during a conversation, ensuring the tool supported the flow of a meeting rather than interrupting it.
Designing for offline
A key constraint was that the tool needed to work reliably in live, sometimes offline environments.
This influenced decisions around:
- layout simplicity
- interaction patterns
- content density
- performance considerations
The interface was designed to feel stable and predictable, allowing sales reps to focus on the conversation rather than the tool itself.
Alongside the core sales support flow, the system also accommodated an Innovation Centre feature, extending the original scope to support structured idea capture and feedback. Reps could browse and up-vote submitted ideas or contribute new ones via a short form, with a CMS-backed workflow enabling the innovation team to review, prioritise, and publish submissions. This introduced a second mode of use to the platform — supporting exploration and contribution — while maintaining overall consistency with the core sales experience.
Visual design and brand alignment
Visually, the design needed to balance clarity with brand authority.
Rolls-Royce’s brand values — precision, engineering excellence, and restraint — informed typography, layout, and colour choices. The interface was intentionally understated, ensuring that the content remained the focus and the tool felt appropriate for high-stakes client discussions.
The aim was not to impress visually, but to build confidence and trust through clarity and consistency.
Outcome
The tool was delivered as a shipped MVP and used as a sales support reference. As with many agency projects, my involvement focused on definition and delivery, and I wasn’t embedded beyond launch.
I led the visual design, information architecture, and prototyping to ensure the system supported real sales conversations, worked reliably in-meeting and offline, and stayed true to Rolls-Royce’s brand and governance standards. The work reflects my approach to designing clear, structured digital systems — balancing complexity, constraint, and real-world use to create solutions that can be built and used with confidence.