Design Systems | DesignOps
Design System Revamp for IC2.0
IC2.0 is an HRTech platform and it comprises of an ecosystem of more than 15+ various products/solutions. The design system needed an overhaul, with the goal of unifying its scattered components to establish a solid foundation.
Company
Korn Ferry
Role
Design Systems Lead
Duration
Jan 2023 - Mar 2024
Context
About
IC2.0 is an HRTech platform that includes an ecosystem of over 15 different products and solutions. The design system required a revamp to unify these fragmented elements, laying a strong foundation and implementing a comprehensive CI/CD process to ensure consistency, efficiency, and cohesive branding across the entire product suite and organization.
Business problem
The goal of this project was to establish a stronger foundation for the IC2.0 ecosystem, ensuring brand consistency, operational efficiency, and the creation of responsive products.
The design system also played a critical role in standardising the product and equipping a team of over 40 designers and contractors with reusable components to accelerate their workflows.
Initial Discovery and Heuristic Evaluation
I began by conducting initial research and analyzing the existing design library for the product. This included reviewing current design system elements to identify inconsistencies, areas needing improvement, how the design team was using the library, and assessing the accessibility compliance of all components.
Survey
I conducted an initial survey with the internal product teams to gather their perspectives on the existing v1.0 and v1.5 design systems. The results revealed that many developers and designers struggled to fully utilize the design system due to issues like inconsistency, missing variants, and the need to create local components for specific requirements.
Identifying core problems
As my research progressed, I identified a clear need for:
A well-defined process for building and maintaining the design system.
Treating the design system as an active internal product or project.
An effective tracking system to manage the component lifecycle and maintain thorough documentation.
Refinements - Establishing the Design System Process and Ops
To address the key challenges, I began defining and refining the design system process to ensure my team—responsible for leading this initiative—was aligned and following a clear, structured approach to create or update the design system efficiently and within scope. I invested significant effort in iterating on the process itself, and here are some highlights of how that helped us successfully advance the design system.
Solution - Laying the foundation
Old vs New foundations
I started off by working on the foundational elements.
There was only a brand color and typography palette available in the existing figma library where the UI kit was designed and built using the same.
Usage of the brand color palette and its typography led us to several component inconsistencies and surfaced accessibility issues. Thus, we needed to improve and expand the foundations for building the new design system.
Design System: Reimagined and Rebuilt
Component revamps
According to the updated design system process:
Every component, along with its properties, variants, and design token changes, was tracked in Jira, with statuses updated throughout development and refinement.
We adopted the Atomic Design approach to structure and create components and elements.
This process ensured the design system remained up to date, minimized inconsistencies, and improved collaboration across the team.
Overall Results
Key actions I took as the Design System lead to ensure the project remained active and sustainable through to its maturity,
Processes established
Communicated the rationale behind my design decisions during discussions with the leadership team.
Defined and documented the internal design system process for seamless handover to developers.
Referenced research sources and outlined alternative approaches considered, to support future designers and the broader product team.
Results
95%
of components are now being tracked, with dedicated JIRA epics established for each one.
Zero
components and variants inconsistencies
100%
of components meet accessibility standards in compliance with WCAG 3.0 guidelines.
