Case study

Building a Living Design System from Day Zero

Client

Confidential wellness platform

Timeline

Shipped v1 in 3 weeks

Role

Co-Lead (solo initially)

Contraints

NDA bound, no prior system, tight roadmap

Setting the scene

scene 01 – joining the dots

In May 2023, I joined a wellness tech company as the second senior designer in a small product team. Just 20 days before, my co-lead had joined and together we noticed design was all over the place. Layouts clashed, elements lacked logic, and the app felt stitched together.

I grabbed my Notepad and began sketching the IA to make sense of things. A few KT sessions later, the problem was obvious. UX was scattered and UI was worse. The product had no design backbone. We had to fix it.

Spotting the problem

scene 02 - auditing the chaos

We skimmed the product to build a visual audit. In just a few hours, we found:

  • Inconsistent button types and shadows

  • Typography without hierarchy

  • Random spacing across screens

  • A bloated, unfocused color palette


This wasn’t just about design hygiene. It was slowing down everyone. We grouped repeated patterns and mapped a rough component list to show the cost of rework.

Pitching the solution

scene 03 - making the case

We built a deck for product and engineering:

  • Audit highlights and visual inconsistencies

  • Impact on UX, dev time and product quality

  • Benefits of introducing a design system

  • Examples like Material, Carbon and Atlassian


We were new, and it was a bold move. But the ask made sense. This wasn’t about perfection. It was about scale. We got the go-ahead.

Building the core

scene 04 - laying the groundwork

We started with the basics:

  • Typography: A flexible type scale

  • Colors: Functional tokens and semantic logic

  • Icons: One unified set

  • Spacing & grid: 4pt system, clean layout columns

scene 05 - scaling the system

We built from atoms to organisms:

  • Atoms: Buttons, inputs, toggles

  • Molecules: Cards, form fields

  • Organisms: Nav bars, tabs, modals


Every component had naming, use cases and variants. We documented everything in Figma for dev handoff and scaling.

Building trust

scene 06 - launching v1

In 3 weeks, we shipped v1:

  • Shared design library in Figma

  • Weekly syncs with devs

  • Tokens ready for frontend

  • Notion doc as system reference


Designers started contributing. Devs shipped faster. Mocks turned into builds without back and forth. The system added speed and structure.

Looking back

scene 07 - from 2 to 4+ years

I had just 2 years of experience when I co-led this. It was my first time owning a system end-to-end. Now, with 4+ years behind me, I still carry the lessons:

  • Create clarity from clutter

  • Lead change without a title

  • Align deeply with tech

stage 01

stage 02

stage 03

stage 04

stage 05

stage 06