Global Design System Solution - UI/UX and Brand Strategy
Problem
Within the Retail Wireless Digital Project, reliance on multiple documentation sources created significant inconsistencies in the brand's asset library.
This fragmentation hampered front-end developers' ability to build and test UI components in isolation.
As design systems evolve, establishing clear guidelines is crucial for streamlining the production process.
Without a unified source of truth, teams faced challenges in maintaining consistency across design and development efforts, resulting in inefficiencies, increased error rates, and potential delays in product deployment.
Addressing these issues is essential for enhancing collaboration, ensuring adherence to design standards, and delivering a cohesive user experience.
This fragmentation hampered front-end developers' ability to build and test UI components in isolation.
As design systems evolve, establishing clear guidelines is crucial for streamlining the production process.
Without a unified source of truth, teams faced challenges in maintaining consistency across design and development efforts, resulting in inefficiencies, increased error rates, and potential delays in product deployment.
Addressing these issues is essential for enhancing collaboration, ensuring adherence to design standards, and delivering a cohesive user experience.
Objectives
- Develop cohesive visual identities that align with each segment of our offerings.
- Improve usability and accessibility across the website.
- Streamline the development process for future projects through standardized components.
- Enhance the overall user experience and engagement by providing straightforward navigation and aesthetic consistency.
Research and Discovery
We undertook comprehensive user research, which included:
- Collaborating with various sources, including the in-house marketing team, the main content management team, and the external design agency team.
- Unifying the tools used by all three sources by implementing a single design software, an online tool for unique front-end developers, and different platforms for acquisition and marketing pages compared to e-commerce, services, and loyalty.
- Conducting usability testing on our existing website to identify areas of confusion and frustration.
Implementation
Using an agile approach, we iteratively developed a global design systems theme:
- Created a unique global design system for the retail wireless digital division, collecting essential and stylistic elements: color swatches, typography styles, icons, shadows, grids, and columns.
- Built basic elements for each brand and theme under the retail wireless platform.
- Developed global components like buttons, inputs, cards, toggles, image holders, radio buttons, checkboxes, and modal components.
- Each brand theme included unique components, in addition to the global components file.
- Utilized the variation mode in the design tool to activate basic styles for each design system.
- Modified and documented instructions for the new front-end development team regarding design directions and coding.
Results
Enhanced User Experience: Post-launch metrics revealed a significant increase in user engagement, as evidenced by lower bounce rates and increased time spent on the site.
Brand Consistency: The design system provided a unified yet distinct identity for our communication and technology segments, reinforcing our brand across various offerings.
Streamlined Development: The use of standardized components resulted in reduced development time for future projects, allowing for quicker iterations and more manageable updates.
The establishment of this global design system not only provided a cohesive solution for the Communication and Technology website but also significantly enhanced the user experience.
Additionally, it strengthened the brand identity of Dish Network's retail wireless division by addressing the unique needs of each audience segment, ultimately driving greater success and engagement.
Brand Consistency: The design system provided a unified yet distinct identity for our communication and technology segments, reinforcing our brand across various offerings.
Streamlined Development: The use of standardized components resulted in reduced development time for future projects, allowing for quicker iterations and more manageable updates.
The establishment of this global design system not only provided a cohesive solution for the Communication and Technology website but also significantly enhanced the user experience.
Additionally, it strengthened the brand identity of Dish Network's retail wireless division by addressing the unique needs of each audience segment, ultimately driving greater success and engagement.
