Baubap Design System

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As part of Baubap’s Design System Team, I collaborated with a talented group of designers and developers to build and evolve a design system that supported the company’s growth. Our focus was to create a unified system that ensured consistency across Android and iOS platforms while improving efficiency for all product teams.

Completion Date

September 2023

Category

Product Design, UI Design, Design System

Sector

Finance

The Challenge

Baubap was rapidly growing, and with it, the need for a cohesive and scalable design system. We needed a flexible, multi-platform design system for Android (and eventually iOS) that would allow us to develop consistent and efficient user experiences while addressing several pain points: ✶ Consistency: across platforms and products ✶ Scalability: in both the design and development processes ✶ Efficiency: in communication between design and development teams

The Process

1. Component Creation for Android - I worked with developers to establish a UI component library that followed Android’s Material Design guidelines but included custom styles reflecting Baubap's brand. - Each component was designed to be flexible, allowing for modifications and updates as the product evolved. - Components like buttons, text fields, and modals were documented to standardize their usage. 2. Documentation - Documentation was a critical part of the project, and I built guidelines for each component, detailing its usage, constraints, and visual specifications. - I documented edge cases and shared design rationale to help developers understand the “why” behind design decisions. 3. Design System Management - Occasionally, I took on design system management responsibilities, maintaining component integrity, updating documentation, and prioritizing component improvements. - This also meant coordinating with development teams to ensure the design system was up-to-date and aligned with evolving product needs. 4. Initial Steps for iOS Compatibility - We started preliminary work on adapting the design system for iOS, ensuring it could flexibly adapt to Apple’s interface guidelines while maintaining brand consistency. - iOS component work is still in progress, but this step has laid a strong foundation for cross-platform cohesion. 5. Token Organization & Font Scalability - I led efforts to reorganize our design tokens, moving from a component-specific to a usage-based structure, which streamlined updates and reduced redundancy. - With font scalability as a priority, I optimized text styles for readability across different screen sizes, enhancing accessibility and user experience.

Solution

The end result was a comprehensive, adaptable Android design system that streamlined design and development workflows, improved consistency, and provided a reliable foundation for future updates. Key achievements included: ✶ Consistency: A standardized set of components that aligned with Android’s Material Design principles, yet customized to match Baubap’s brand. ✶ Documentation: Thorough documentation that enabled rapid onboarding and clear communication for developers and designers alike. ✶Scalability: Scalable tokens and font sizes that ensured our design system could grow with Baubap’s product line and user needs.

Impact & Takeaways

✶ Accelerated design-to-development workflows through reusable components and shared tokens. ✶ Enhanced user experience consistency across Android and iOS applications. ✶ Fostered stronger collaboration between cross-functional teams through shared resources and guidelines. Working on Baubap's design system taught me the importance of cross-functional collaboration and proactive design management. This experience not only sharpened my skills in UI and component design but also deepened my understanding of design system governance. I am now even more confident in building robust, scalable systems that empower teams and elevate user experiences.

Deliverables

Android and iOS Component Library, Cross-Platform Foundations and Tokens, Documentation, Research, Patterns

Credits

Angel Leon, Miguel Alegria