FRAMER

McAfee Design System

Created the information architecture, content strategy, and guidelines for McAfee's design system

McAfee Design System

Created the information architecture, content strategy, and guidelines for McAfee's design system

Role

Lead Content Designer

Team

2 Product Designers, Visual Designer, Content Designer, UX Engineer

Tools

Figma, Writer, ZeroHeight, Kanban

Overview

McAfee, the global B2C cybersecurity company, underwent several rebrandings over the years. Business units were siloed and each used a different set of often outdated and disjointed guidelines.

Problem

There weren't set guidelines or a single source of truth for design and content at McAfee. Product, content, and marketing design, voice, and tone weren't cohesive across the organization which resulted in an inconsistent brand experience.

Approach

I worked with cross-functional stakeholders to build the system's information architecture, accounting for all visual, content, marketing, and partner components.

I surveyed key stakeholders to understand the existing guideline landscape and what the ideal outcome looked like. From there, I drafted a sitemap that included all guideline topics by department for stakeholder approval.

I then worked with content stakeholders from marketing and support to align on brand narratives and voice and tone, leaving room for contextual discrepencies.

Next, I wrote design guidelines and compiled assets from other departments. I worked with the Design Systems designer and engineer to put them into the ZeroHeight platform and edited all content for style and consistency.

Problem

There weren't set guidelines or a single source of truth for design and content at McAfee. Product, content, and marketing design, voice, and tone weren't cohesive across the organization which resulted in an inconsistent brand experience.

Approach

I worked with cross-functional stakeholders to build the system's information architecture, accounting for all visual, content, marketing, and partner components.

I surveyed key stakeholders to understand the existing guideline landscape and what the ideal outcome looked like. From there, I drafted a sitemap that included all guideline topics by department for stakeholder approval.

I then worked with content stakeholders from marketing and support to align on brand narratives and voice and tone, leaving room for contextual discrepencies.

Next, I wrote design guidelines and compiled assets from other departments. I worked with the Design Systems designer and engineer to put them into the ZeroHeight platform and edited all content for style and consistency.

As a final step, we worked together to identify common design and content patterns and create components that would live in the Design System.

Solution

The Assemble Design System launched on time, allowing everyone who creates user-facing material to follow standard guidelines and patterns.


I trained the AI writing assistant, Writer, on standards set in the design system which applies voice, tone, and style consistency to writing in real-time. This helped designers stay on-brand if they were writing content on their own.

As a final step, we worked together to identify common design and content patterns and create components that would live in the Design System.

Solution

The Assemble Design System launched on time, allowing everyone who creates user-facing material to follow standard guidelines and patterns.


I trained the AI writing assistant, Writer, on standards set in the design system which applies voice, tone, and style consistency to writing in real-time. This helped designers stay on-brand if they were writing content on their own.

Outcome

The content and design style guide is the most critical piece in communicating to users using cohesive voice and language across all McAfee touchpoints.

With the introduction of the Assemble Design System, more than 200 people across several departments use it on a daily basis to ensure design and content are up to the brand standard.

Grace Donoso

2025