Zero-True Design System
Developing a Scalable Framework for Seamless Component Creation
providing context
What is an atomic design system?
A design system is a collection of reusable components, design patterns, and guidelines that ensure consistency across a product. It includes design tokens (like colors and typography), UI components (buttons, inputs, etc.), and style guides that help teams collaborate efficiently and maintain a cohesive user experience.
To build a scalable system, I applied atomic design theory, which breaks down a product’s interface into its smallest elements—atoms (colors, icons), molecules (form fields, buttons), organisms (navbars, cards), and templates (page layouts). This approach allows components to be reused across the product, ensuring consistency while adapting to growth. It promotes efficiency, flexibility, and scalability, allowing teams to build new features quickly without redesigning elements from scratch.
the challenge
Establish a scalable design system that streamlines collaboration and integrates seamlessly with development workflows.
Create a flexible, reusable set of components that allow the product to evolve without compromising consistency or user experience.
Ensure easy adoption using an atomic design structure.
PROCESS & DISCOVERY
Understanding the team
I began by conducting interviews and workshops with key stakeholders—product managers, engineers, and other designers—to identify their process and expectations for a new design system. This collaborative approach ensured that the system would meet both technical and creative needs and be flexible enough to adapt as the product evolved.
From this experience, I created three initial brainstorming goals to keep in consideration throughout the process:
How can we ensure the design system remains up-to-date and functional over time?
What organizational approach best supports easy navigation and consistent usage?
How do we foster ongoing alignment across teams to maintain system integrity?
Component Breakdown
Our core component structure
I translated team insights into core design components like sliders, buttons, and markers. Each element was designed for flexibility and reusability, ensuring seamless integration across the platform. This laid the foundation for a scalable system that could evolve with Zero-True’s product feature list and user needs.
FOUNDATIONAL COLLABORATION
Building a unified system across teams
Every successful project depends on strong collaboration and communication across teams. When building a design system, it’s not only about addressing technical needs but ensuring that every department feels heard and invested in the system’s success. A design system is only effective if it's adopted by all stakeholders.
Throughout this process, I actively sought feedback from each team—Leadership, Product, Marketing, Support, Design, and Developers—to make sure their needs and concerns were addressed. This inclusive approach ensured the system would be flexible and meet the requirements of every function, allowing us to build a cohesive and scalable solution that aligned with the broader company goals.
TOKEN ARCHITECTURE
Building brand consistency
Designing the atoms of the design system involved close collaboration with our software engineering team to ensure its full-stack capability. Through this process, I learned a lot about design token architecture and how it can be efficiently used to scale a brand throughout development.
By leveraging design tokens, we were able to update the design system while our software engineers actively developed the back-end functionality of the product, saving time and effort for the entire team.
TOKEN ARCHITECTURE
Component properties
Understanding the properties of components and how they interact within the design system was essential throughout our process. For example, the type scale influenced component sizing, while button hierarchy dictated the spacing and padding of interactive elements.
Given the complexity of our software product, maintaining an intuitive end-user experience was paramount.
TOKEN ARCHITECTURE
How our components fit into the templates
Building a scalable design system starts with establishing a strong foundation of interconnected building blocks. By applying the atomic design methodology, we created simple, reusable components that can be combined into more complex structures, much like a chemical equation.
Focusing on atomic elements allowed us to manage sizes efficiently without creating every possible variation for each component. Instead, we developed a finite set of atomic components, such as buttons and labels, that could be reused and nested within more complex components like molecules, organisms, and templates.
This approach ensured that our design was reproducible, adaptable, and scalable at every level, supporting seamless growth and integration as the product evolved.
FINAL CONSTRUCTION
As the last phase of constructing the design system, I prioritized creating thorough documentation. This ensures that when someone new joins the team, they can quickly and seamlessly integrate into the system without needing extensive onboarding or guidance.
Clear Categorization: The tokens were organized into logical categories, making it easy for team members to locate and apply them.
Practical Usage Guidelines: Each token and template example was accompanied by guidelines that outlined best practices, common use cases, and any restrictions.
Interactive Elements: Where applicable, I incorporated interactive components in the documentation to allow for real-time experimentation with the tokens and templates.
IN ENVIRONMENT
