Rearchitected a university-wide marketing-focused design system for library content needs, delivering WCAG-compliant components and a shared design token framework bridging design and production.
Role
UX/UI Designer, Frontend Engineer
Year
2024 - present
Team
1 Senior Software Engineer, 1 Product Manager
Platform
Web Application
Project at a Glance
Adapting a marketing-focused design system for research and content needs
The University of Maryland released a new school-wide design system built for institutional marketing. For the Libraries, whose primary purpose is helping patrons find and access research resources, the system's marketing-focused design language and inflexible components weren't fit for purpose. The redesign focused on rationalizing the system's complexity, establishing an accessibility-first component library, and bridging design and production through a shared token framework.
A marketing-focused design system optimizes for visual impact and institutional promotion — the opposite of what a content-heavy, research-driven library website requires. The base system offered no customization options and lacked components for core library needs like search, chat, etc.
Rearchitected the design system for library content needs through two moves: restraint — simplifying and standardizing what existed, reducing typography from 25 styles to 11 and clarifying component hierarchy — and extension — building net-new components grounded in a shared design token framework bridging Figma and production.
