Sunita Yeomans

From Chaos to Order: the redesign of the Argos catalogue

The Argos catalogue was once a chaotic, messy collection of individual pages that were bound together with a front cover. Customers complained that it was hard to find stuff. They couldn't read the text properly. It was difficult to compare products. Shopping from the catalogue was like hunting through a jumble sale, but with brand new stuff.

The redesigned Argos catalogue is now an ordered, well presented collection of products grouped into 10 departments. Customers say it has clear, detailed information, and is very easy to shop.

My talk will show the impact of graphic information design on this transformation, and how real environments such as the National Gallery and the Heathrow Terminal 5 building influenced the new navigation system for the 1800 page catalogue. I’ll also explain why it is so important to listen to your audience and observe their behaviour, but why a good designer should never take their suggestions too literally.

Sunita Yeomans was given the position of Creative Controller at Argos in 2003. Prior to this she was Head of Design for Boots.com, and before that an in-house Design Leader at Boots. She began her professional career in the 1991, during a recession, launching design business ‘Designing Information’. She has a BA (Hons) degree in Graphic Information Design from the University of Westminster. She describes the redesign of the Argos catalogue as the most rewarding and challenging project of her career.