Zara

Digitising the clothing design process.
A streamlined internal tool to speed up and simplify final approval of clothing designs.

I worked on defining and designing the Legal module for Zara’s internal design platform, replacing long email chains and spreadsheets with a structured, visual workflow. Designers can submit requests, Legal can review with clear verdicts, and everything stays organised through Kanban-style boards, annotated previews, and AI-powered similarity detection to quickly flag potential plagiarism. The result is a scalable and consistent system that reduces friction, improves clarity, and makes approvals easier across multiple brands.

MY ROLE

  • Lead Designer UX/UI

  • User research & analysis

  • Usability testing

THE TEAM

  • Product Owner

  • Technical Lead

  • 5 Developers

  • Designer

TIMELINE

  • 6 months (12 Sprints)

PROBLEM

Inditex needed a unified, scalable way to manage Legal reviews across brands, reduce friction and bring clarity to a fragmented process. How might we create a cohesive platform that streamlines reviews and adapts to multiple teams and workflows?

IMPACT

I defined the strategic direction and a 40+ key screen foundation that now guides how Inditex scales Legal workflows across all eight brands. I also aligned Zara Legal and Inditex Digital on a clear product direction, and introduced AI-driven risk detection and a scalable structure to make Legal reviews more consistent and efficient across the organisation.

 
 
BACKGROUND

Zara is a global fashion brand with standardised processes for creating each collection. Until recently, the design process was very traditional: designers used mood boards on walls, shared updates through long email chains, and tracked progress with spreadsheets.

The workflow involves many departments, and each stage requires approval before an item can move forward to the next stage. If approval is not given, the design often goes back to an earlier stage.

From early sketches and fabric selection to supplier communication and pattern testing, designers must coordinate many moving parts. This makes the process heavy and time-consuming, with most of the responsibility falling on Zara’s designer to keep everything on track.

THE BRIEF

Zara needed a clearer and more scalable way to manage Legal reviews across its global brands. I was brought in to define the end-to-end experience and set a cohesive, extensible direction for a new internal platform that could standardise workflows and reduce friction.

Context
As part of Zara’s wider effort to digitise the design process, this project focused on building a dedicated Legal (Industrial Property) module inside the existing internal platform. The goal: streamline the approval stage before production.

What the tool needed to do

  1. Prevent plagiarism with a clearer, structured review flow

  2. Let designers submit and manage requests with ease

  3. Centralise workflows to improve cross-team collaboration

  4. Keep a log of past inquiries for better decisions

  5. Improve efficiency and consistency across the design process

This module became a key part of Zara’s broader platform for modernising and optimising the end-to-end design workflow.

 
THE APPROACH

My approach was collaborative and iterative. I started by listening to users and understanding their challenges, then translated those insights into concepts we could test and refine together. Each step helped align the tool with both designer needs and business goals, making sure the final product was practical, usable, and strategic.

 
 
 
DISCOVERY PHASE

I began by interviewing employees from Zara’s Legal department to understand their way of working, main challenges, pain points, and long-term product vision.

These conversations revealed the need for Zara’s design process to move away from a traditional, manual approach and evolve into a digital platform that brings departments together, organises workflows, and makes the entire process more efficient and traceable.

Kick-off research session: gathering insights from the Legal department on how requests are managed today.

 
 

AUDITING WAYS OF WORKING

To redesign the Legal workflow, I first needed a deep understanding of how users and departments operated: which tools they relied on, how these tools fit into their daily work, and what their objectives were.

Through this audit, I discovered that the process was manual, fragmented, and dependent on outdated tools such as email, Excel, Google Images, and even an internal tool similar to Paint for feedback.

TOOLS USED BY THE LEGAL TEAM

✉️ Email

The main channel for communication between designers and the Legal team. It’s used for submitting requests, asking questions during the review, and sharing the final verdict.

🔍 Google images

The primary search tool for checking if similar garments already exist in the market.

💬 Internal tool

For proposals requiring feedback, the Legal team used a basic annotation tool (similar to Paint) to draw and write comments directly on designs. This allowed them to provide visual, actionable feedback.

🗃 Excel

Used to organise and compare requests, track comments, document verdicts, and store attachments. Excel also acted as a historical record to support decision-making.

CURRENT USER FLOW

  • Designers submitted requests by email to the Legal Department for review.

    • Requests were handled in order of arrival.

    • A Legal employee opened the request and assigned it to themselves.

    • There were three request types:

      • Text: Check originality and respectfulness.

      • Pattern: Ensure the pattern wasn’t already in the market.

      • Prints: Confirm originality and avoid similarities with competitors.

  • The Legal employee searched for potential conflicts, mainly using Google Images.

  • Findings were stored in an Excel spreadsheet: one column with the designer’s proposal images, another with research results and potential conflicts.

  • Outcomes included:

    • Approved → The design was original and moved forward.

    • Disapproved with comments → Feedback was provided (often using “Paint”-style annotations) so the designer could make changes.

    • Denied → The design was too similar to existing pieces and could not proceed.

    • Approved → The design moved into the next stage.

    • Disapproved with comments → The designer implemented changes and resubmitted.

    • Denied → The designer had to restart with a new design.

Diagram of user flow audit

USER REQUIREMENTS

After auditing the existing ways of working and observing how different teams interacted during the review process, I identified several key requirements that the new platform needed to address. These requirements were shaped by recurring pain points such as slow response times, communication breakdowns, and the difficulty of managing a large number of concurrent requests.

❶
Faster turnaround Times

Some queries must be resolved in less than 24 hours, while urgent ones need responses in under 3 hours.

❷
Capacity to handle high volume

The system must handle a high volume of daily requests efficiently and consistently.

❸
Clear team communication

Legal reviews often involve multiple departments, so a clear communication flow is essential to avoid delays or confusion.

PLATFORM FUNCTIONALITIES

Following the definition of user requirements, I outlined the platform’s core functionalities to streamline collaboration, accelerate decision-making, and ensure originality at scale.

 

📝 Create and manage requests

Create, assign, and track design requests in a structured way to ensure clarity and accountability.

🤝 Cross-Department Collaboration

Centralise communication between designers, buyers, and quality teams - sharing comments, attachments, and contextual feedback in one place.

🔁 Iteration Tracker

Keep a full version history of each design iteration, making it easy to compare updates before and after feedback.

 

📊 Follow-up in a status dashboard

Offer visibility at every stage of the process — from initial submission to final approval

🗂️ Feedback record

Store decision records and verdicts for every review cycle, enabling transparency, traceability into design approval patterns.

🔎 Plagiarism & Similarity Detection

Detecting potential risks quickly and reducing manual checks.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

🧩 Cohesive

Consistent visual language and shared interaction patterns ensure the Legal module feels like a natural extension of the existing tools (Inspiration, Planning).

⚡ Efficient

Every interaction is designed to accelerate turnaround times — enabling quick decisions, fewer clicks, and more visibility across stages.

✨ Simple

Complex workflows are translated into clear, minimal interfaces that keep focus on the task and reduce friction for busy teams.

🤝 Collaborative

Feedback, communication, and decision-making happen in one place, promoting transparency and alignment across departments.

 
 

INITIAL CONCEPT

After user interviews and a workflow audit, I designed a set of key screens illustrating the main actions and user flow. These concepts were directly shaped by user needs and research insights, then shared with stakeholders to align on priorities and define the MVP.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

🌐 Cohesive Ecosystem
Aligned the Legal module with existing Inspiration and Planning tools to ensure visual and structural consistency across Zara’s design ecosystem.

Kanban System — Gave Legal users a visual way to track requests, replacing fragmented email threads with a single, clear overview.

Request Detail Page — Displays the designer’s inspiration board beside garment images awaiting approval.

Annotation Tool — Enables drawing and written comments directly on designs, modernizing the legacy “Paint-style” workflow.

AI-Powered Image Search — Surfaces visually similar references directly within the tool for faster verdicts.

 
 

ITERATIVE FEEDBACK SESSIONS

After designing the first key screens, I conducted several feedback sessions with the client to review the proposal and uncover additional needs that hadn’t been identified at the start. These discussions helped refine the approach and ensure alignment with their expectations.

In parallel, I met with the business team to explore how existing components in the Zara’s Design System could be adapted and reused for the Legal product, ensuring both efficiency and consistency with the rest of the product.

Leading a cross-department call to align on priorities and next steps.

Client feedback session on card info and preview states.

 

REFINING THE CONCEPT

Based on user insights, I refined the concept and iterated key screens to align designers’ and Legal’s needs, validating the flow and MVP with stakeholders.

Click on the file below to navigate through the Figma file 👇

SOLUTION

Final outcome
- Highlights

Each highlight showcases a key aspect of the new Zara internal tool. For every feature, I’ve outlined:

  • The design goal it supports

  • The user problem or scenario it addresses

  • The solution implemented to solve it

A video demonstration showcasing how the Legal Department tool seamlessly integrates with the Zara Design tool and collaborates with other departments.

DESIGN GOAL: EFFICIENCY

Query cards

Each enquiry is represented as a card showing all key details at a glance — product image, department, reference number, title, risk level, last interaction date, and collaborators.

This visual structure helps users quickly identify and prioritise queries without opening each one. The consistent layout and clear hierarchy make it easy to understand status, ownership, and urgency at first sight, helping teams act faster.

 

DESIGN GOAL: EFFICIENCY

Kanban for queries

Before, all enquiries came by email, and it was difficult to know who was in charge or what the status was. With the Kanban system, everything is now in one place and easy to follow. Each enquiry is a card that moves through stages (New, In Progress, Pending, Resolved, Cancelled). The team can quickly see the status of them. They can also filter the enquiries if they want to focus on something specific.

This solved the problem of lost emails and confusion, making it clear who owns each enquiry and what needs to happen next.

DESIGN GOAL: COLLABORATIVE

Moodboard

The Legal team often revisits the Moodboard to review the inspiration images designers used. This allows them to confirm that none of the references are too close to the final design being submitted for approval, ensuring originality and consistency across collections.

By giving Design and Legal access to the same visual references, the process becomes more transparent and collaborative — fostering shared understanding and smoother decision-making.

Opens Designer’s visual references

Legal downloads files that believe are relevant for feedback or final verdict

 

DESIGN GOAL: EFFICIENCY

Query detail page

To streamline communication between Design and Legal, I redesigned the Query Detail page to bring all key elements into one clear view — the design proposal images, conversation thread, and query status. Designers can now share sketches, samples, or references, while Legal can comment directly, track progress, and approve iterations in context.

By centralising information and feedback in one place, the process becomes faster, reducing back-and-forth emails and ensuring every decision is clearly documented.

 

DESIGN GOAL: SIMPLE

Easy comparison

Before, checking for plagiarism or similarity meant searching in different places and doing manual reviews. Now, the product makes it simple to compare the garment sent by the designer with the references collected by Legal, all in one view.

It also allows side-by-side comparison with the inspiration board, making the review process faster and more reliable.

 
 
 

DESIGN GOAL: EFFICIENCY

AI-Powered Image Search

Previously, the Legal team relied on manual Google searches to verify whether a new design could be a plagiarism risk: a time-consuming and inconsistent process.

The new AI-powered image search, integrated directly into the internal platform, automatically scans and compares the proposed design against a database of existing garments and online imagery. This feature allows the team to identify potential similarities instantly, saving valuable time and improving the accuracy and consistency of their assessments.

This solves a manual and error-prone verification process, replaced by a faster and more reliable AI-assisted workflow.

 
 
 

DESIGN GOAL: COHESIVE

Consultations history

Previously, verdicts were shared across different channels, making it difficult to track past discussions or decisions. Now, all interactions happen within the same enquiry, keeping every comment, revision, and final verdict in one place.

When Legal submits their decision, the status updates automatically and syncs with the Kanban view, so the entire team can instantly see the outcome and next steps.

 
 

DESIGN GOAL: EFFICIENCY

Verdicts made simple

The final stage of the review allows Legal to issue a verdict directly within the enquiry. They can mark a design as approved, needs revision, or rejected, adding contextual comments when needed.

Once submitted, the verdict instantly updates the status and notifies the Design team, ensuring everyone stays aligned and the process keeps moving without delays.

Embedding verdicts within the same flow connects every stage of the review — from submission to approval — creating a cohesive, end-to-end experience.

PROJECT OUTCOME

The project delivered a validated, scalable direction for Inditex’s future internal tools — a foundation that aligned teams, introduced new capabilities, and set a clear path for how Legal workflows can evolve across the organisation.

  • This work concluded with a validated concept for a scalable, white-label platform designed to support Inditex’s global portfolio. Although the product wasn’t released during my time on the initiative, the direction was approved by Zara Legal and Inditex’s digitalisation team, who saw it as a natural, cohesive evolution of their existing internal tools.

  • As the sole designer, I delivered 40+ core screens covering the full lifecycle of Legal requests and worked closely with stakeholders across both teams to ensure clarity, alignment and operational feasibility.

  • The Legal module was also one of the first areas to introduce AI, automatically surfacing potential plagiarism risks — a capability with the potential to streamline reviews and reduce legal exposure across brands.

  • The work ultimately became a reference for future internal products, setting the foundation for a system that can scale across all Inditex brands.