NCR Core Design System

Design System Contributor | Hospitality Lead UX Designer, Design Systems | Figma

One of the most exciting and challenging projects I worked on was leading the evolution of the NCR Design System at NCR. Overall, the NCR Design System was a challenging and rewarding project that resulted in significant improvements to the design process at NCR. The system has helped to streamline workflows and ensure consistency across all NCR platforms, and has enabled designers to focus on creating more impactful, innovative designs.

Overview

My involvement with the NCR Design System project was essential to its success. Leadership reiterated to me on multiple occasions that my ability to build strong relationships, provide guidance, and encourage innovation helped to ensure that the system was embraced by the wider design and development teams at NCR.

The Challenge

Encouraging designers to innovate and experiment within the framework of the design system, and provided guidance on how to use the system effectively. By empowering designers to take ownership of the system, I helped to foster a sense of ownership and investment in its success.

Business Goals

By actively soliciting input from designers, I helped to ensure that the system was constantly improving and evolving to meet the changing needs of the business.

My Role

As a senior product designer at NCR, I was brought onto the team in late 2021 to help address the challenge of maintaining consistency across all lines of business (LOBs) using the existing MUI design system. Starting in hospitality, I worked to adopt, innovate, and grow a shared library of design assets. This work caught the attention of leadership, and I was subsequently asked to lead the core NCR Design System effort.

Over the course of 2022, I established strong relationships with product owners and designers across the organization. They came to see me as a trusted resource who could help them navigate the complexities of the design system and ensure consistency across all LOBs. I was approachable, open to feedback, and committed to fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration amongst the design team. My efforts were recognized by leadership and my peers, and I was trusted to provide guidance on design-related matters throughout the organization.

Creating a Shared Library

I created a shared pattern library that contained all the design elements, components, and guidelines that designers needed to create high-quality, consistent designs. By providing a central location for all design assets, I helped to reduce the risk of design inconsistencies and errors.

Evangelizing the Design System

I also created detailed documentation and guidelines to assist designers in utilizing the design system effectively, and provided training to ensure that all team members could implement the system successfully.

Leveraging Figma Capabilities

By utilizing the native capabilities of Figma, I was able to create design patterns that were easy and intuitive for other designers to use in their own projects. I made extensive use of features like component properties, nested instances, bubble properties, and slot design to ensure that the patterns were flexible and could be adapted to a wide variety of use cases. This approach resulted in smarter and more effective design patterns that were readily adopted by other designers across the organization.

Figma Component & Bubble Properties

The video showcases how the native Figma capabilities have evolved in 2023 to create smarter and more efficient design patterns. These patterns are designed to be responsive, product designer-friendly, and reduce the need for detaching from the design system in a designer’s workflow. By using these new capabilities, designers are able to create more effective designs in less time, while still maintaining the consistency and integrity of the NCR Design System.

Results

I'm grateful for the trust that leadership placed in me to lead this project, and I'm proud of the results that we were able to achieve together. By streamlining the design process and establishing comprehensive patterns, we were able to reduce design time at NCR while maintaining a high level of consistency across all products.