Developing an Organization-Wide Design System
Project Year: 2022
Role: UX Researcher
Methods: Qualitative Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Cognitive Walkthroughs, Usability Testing
Organization: Hack for LA
Problem Space
Hack for LA the Los Angeles-based brigade of Code for America, a volunteer-based organization that provides digital solutions for government, non-profit, and corporate partners in the civic tech space.
The organization lacked a uniform design system that project teams could use to develop digital solutions and document their work. This led to inconsistency across teams in how solutions were delivered to stakeholders, as well as difficulty with onboarding new team members.
Research Process
Upon joining the team, I synthesized 5 previously-completed in-depth interviews with product managers, designers, and the executive director of Hack for LA. These interviews were exploratory in nature and sought to understand diverse goals, motivations, and challenges associated with everyday design work across teams. This research validated the need for an organization-wide design system. Insights were shared with design and product stakeholders within the team to develop an MVP design system in Figma that would meet the needs of users.
Affinity Diagramming of Interviews in Figma
I then leveraged the insights from this foundational research to develop a new multi-phase research plan geared toward observing users interacting with their current design systems, as well as the newly developed design system from our team. Phase I involved contextual inquiry sessions with 7 participants, in which we observed designers interacting with their current-state design systems. This data was further analyzed for user needs and pain points. We then planned usability testing on the MVP design system developed by our team.
As of October 2022, I transitioned to a new role, and our product was in the early release phase. Once fully adopted, it is expected to bring alignment within teams around design processes, streamline onboarding processes for new volunteers, and preserve institutional memory for future projects.
Deliverables & Impact
Research insights were synthesized through affinity diagramming techniques and presented to design and product stakeholders, resulting in the creation of a Design System MVP (called “Hack for LA Figma Kit”).
The research also helped identify areas of need for improvement to volunteer experience beyond the design system, including more formal mechanisms for mentorship, professional development, and cross-team collaboration.
The final version of our product is now released in beta, and additional evaluative research is planned for improving version 2.