FamHub Design System: Unifying Family Experiences Across Devices
Overview 👀
Project Duration: 2 months
Role: Design System Lead
Tools: Figma
Role and Responsibilities: As the Design System Lead for the design system at FamHub Network, I was responsible for creating a scalable, consistent framework to ensure a seamless user experience across the platform.
Introduction
In collaboration with FamHub Network, I served as the lead UX/UI Designer to develop a comprehensive design system aimed at ensuring consistency and scalability across their e-commerce parenting platform.
Utilizing my skills in Figma, I focused on creating a cohesive, user-friendly design system that streamlined the development process and enhanced the overall user experience.
The design system was crafted to support the platform’s goal of simplifying family resource management, ensuring an intuitive layout, and providing easy access to key data and notifications. By aligning design and development, FamHub Network was able to scale efficiently while maintaining a seamless and engaging experience for families.
Project Details
The platform was facing difficulties scaling due to a lack of consistency in design components. Various teams (designers, developers, and product managers) were creating new interfaces without a unified guideline, resulting in fragmented user experiences.
Problems
Stakeholders (including product managers and developers) needed a robust design system that:
Ensured consistency across the platform.
Accelerated the development of new features and pages.
Was adaptable to both mobile and desktop interfaces.
Was flexible enough to incorporate future updates and additions to the platform.
Main Problem
Requirements
Consistency: Establish a unified visual language to maintain design uniformity across all components and screens.
Scalability: Develop a system capable of supporting new features, pages, and platform growth without compromising design integrity.
Responsiveness: Ensure all components and layouts adapt seamlessly to both mobile and desktop interfaces.
Accessibility: Incorporate accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG) to make the platform usable for diverse audiences.
Efficiency: Simplify collaboration between designers and developers with clear guidelines and reusable components.
Flexibility: Design tokens and components should allow customization for future updates or branding adjustments.
Documentation: Provide thorough and easy-to-follow documentation for consistent implementation by cross-functional teams.
Project Process
Design Process Flow
Discovery
In the Discovery phase, I focused on understanding the challenges of maintaining consistency and scalability across the FamHub Network platform. I worked closely with stakeholders, including product managers and developers, to identify their pain points and needs related to creating a unified design system.
Research
To gather insights, I employed a multi-faceted research approach:
Stakeholder Interviews: Engaged with product managers and developers to understand their challenges in maintaining a cohesive design across mobile and desktop interfaces.
Platform Audit: Reviewed existing design assets and user flows to identify inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
Competitive Analysis: Analyzed other design systems used in similar platforms to uncover best practices and gaps that FamHub Network could address.
Accessibility Review: Assessed the platform against accessibility standards to ensure the new system would support diverse user needs.
Team Feedback Sessions: Collaborated with cross-functional teams to understand their workflows and identify opportunities to streamline the design-to-development handoff.
Component Design
In the Component Design stage, I focused on creating a library of reusable and adaptable UI elements to ensure consistency and efficiency across the platform.
Key Actions
Designing Core Components: Developed buttons, input fields, modals, cards, and navigation elements with a focus on usability, responsiveness, and accessibility.
Responsive Design: Ensured all components were optimized for both mobile and desktop interfaces, maintaining a seamless experience across devices.
Visual Hierarchy: Established a clear visual hierarchy for components to enhance readability and user engagement.
Iterative Feedback: Conducted reviews with stakeholders and developers to refine components and ensure they aligned with technical and business requirements.
Some Design System Components
Design System Buttons
Design Token Creation
In the Design Token Creation stage, I established a system of reusable, platform-wide variables to maintain consistency and flexibility.
Key Actions
Color Tokens: Defined a palette with primary, secondary, and neutral colors, ensuring accessibility with WCAG-compliant contrast ratios.
Typography Tokens: Created tokens for font sizes, weights, and styles to maintain a consistent typographic hierarchy.
Spacing Tokens: Standardized spacing values for margins, padding, and grid layouts to ensure uniformity across components.
Elevation Tokens: Defined shadow and depth tokens for creating a cohesive sense of hierarchy and focus.
Scalability: Designed tokens to be easily updated, allowing the system to adapt to future branding changes or platform needs.
Collaboration and Handoff
In the Collaboration and Handoff stage, I ensured seamless integration of the design system into the development workflow.
Key Actions
Developer Collaboration: Conducted regular syncs with developers to address technical constraints and align on implementation strategies.
Design Handoff Tools: Utilized tools like Figma to provide developers with detailed specifications, including component states, interactions, and responsive behaviors.
Prototypes and Examples: Delivered interactive prototypes to demonstrate component functionality and user flows.
Guidelines and Support: Provided clear implementation guides and was available for troubleshooting to ensure accurate application of the design system.
Feedback Loop: Encouraged iterative feedback from developers to refine components for optimal performance and usability.
Guide and Iteration
In the Guide and Iteration stage, I documented the design system and refined it based on team feedback and evolving project needs.
Key Actions
Comprehensive Guide: Created a user-friendly guide outlining component usage, design tokens, and best practices for implementation.
Team Training: Conducted walkthroughs and training sessions to help stakeholders and developers understand and utilize the design system effectively.
Feedback Collection: Regularly gathered input from designers, developers, and product managers to identify areas for improvement.
Continuous Updates: Iteratively refined the system to address new requirements, ensure scalability, and align with project goals.
Version Control: Established a versioning system to track updates and maintain consistency across teams
Design System Colors
Design System Spacings
Design System Text Styles
Outcome & Results
The design system was successfully implemented across 25+ components for the FamHub Network platform. It streamlined development by reducing design inconsistencies by 30%, improved scalability for future updates, and ensured a cohesive, responsive experience across desktop and mobile devices.
Implemented Design System
Explore the detailed Figma file to view a design system. Click the Figma icon in the bottom left to open the file.
With the design system in place, the development team was able to work more efficiently, reducing inconsistencies and speeding up the time to market for new features. Designers were able to reuse components, and developers could focus on coding without needing to make design decisions every time.
Metrics
Reduced development time for new pages and features by 30%.
Increased team collaboration and communication, leading to fewer design-developer handoff issues.
Improved user engagement as a result of a consistent, easy-to-use platform.
Feedback
Stakeholders reported higher satisfaction with the overall design process, and user feedback indicated an improved experience navigating the platform.
Client's Recommendation on LinkedIn
Reflection
One of the key takeaways was the importance of continuous collaboration between design and development. Early and frequent feedback was essential for ensuring the design system’s success.
Future Improvements
While the system is scalable, future iterations could focus on expanding the component library further and refining accessibility features based on ongoing user feedback.
Conclusion
The design system I created for FamHub Network transformed the platform, allowing for faster development cycles, a more cohesive user experience, and easier future updates. It ensured consistency across multiple platforms and provided a solid foundation for scaling as the business grew.
