Daugherty Business Solutions, an IT-oriented consultant company, has created and maintained multiple internal products. Besides the company's brand colors, the internal products did not carry UI design consistency. Developers were also re-developing common components (like buttons, text inputs, and cards) for each product, creating more work and potential bugs.

A design system would solve those problems; UI components designed to be used across products and code that has been developed and tested to avoid future problems when implemented.

I brought together a team of UX Designers and Researchers to start planning out the design system that would come to be known as BRIX. We were able to architect a list of common components that are seen throughout various digital products. As a team we decided to follow the atomic design principals; we prioritized selecting smaller elements like colors and typography, built on top of it with buttons and inputs, and then structured more complex components like search and card UI.

We were able to build out these components while holding each other accountable to upholding accessibility standards and focused on WCAG's AA guidelines. Usability was also an important factor, components were created with the mindset that it could be used on a touch-based device.

BRIX components also needed documentation. We came up with a structure for each component page that would focus on the overview of the specific component, best use case, accessibility guidelines, different states and a page for development code.

As the founder of BRIX, I've been in constant contact with the BRIX development team. I attend meetings to answer questions and provide feedback about component styles and states. The development team has also offered helpful feedback that as designers, we've been able to implement in the UI library.