Blue Origin Design System

The Blue Origin UX design system

In the ever-evolving landscape of user experience (UX) design, the concept of a design system has become increasingly vital. A design system is not merely a repository of design elements, but a dynamic framework that empowers designers and developers to craft coherent, visually appealing, and user-friendly digital experiences. It serves as the blueprint that guides the creation of consistent interfaces across various platforms and applications.

Problem

Organizations such as Blue Origin have so much engineering and development talent, is it often too easy to jump right into creating solutions.

Over the years dozens of critical systems were created in haste, at the expense of proper design and user experience. A cascading effect of inefficiencies begin to pile up, costing precious time and ongoing resources.

There was a need to create and maintain a universal design system within the company.

Solution

The Blue Design System was born to create harmony within Blue's software design practices. The design system continued to allow independent teams to create their own solutions without being bottled necked by design. All while conforming to best practices set by the UX team.

Technology

It was important to pick strong, and common technologies that others could readily use. Using the latest shinny framework or hot-thing for an organization like Blue would not be conducive to success. We picked the following based on the support and talent pool available:

• Figma
• React

Evangelism

Build trust is a leadership principle at Blue. A new system, framework, or process doesn't inherently have much trust. I set out by evangelizing the qualities of a design system.

1. Alignment and Consistency
2. Efficiency and Productivity
3. Reduction of Silos
4. Scalability
5. Onboarding and Training
6. Continuous Improvement

I setup office hours, meetings, surveys, the whole nine yards to promote this as a service available to the company.

Enabling Cross-Team Collaboration

A design system serves as a shared language for cross-functional teams. Designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders can all benefit from a common reference point. This synergy fosters collaboration, helping teams work together seamlessly to deliver exceptional user experiences.

A design system serves as a shared language for cross-functional teams. Designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders can all benefit from a common reference point. This synergy fosters collaboration, helping teams work together seamlessly to deliver exceptional user experiences.

Efficiency in Design and Development

Efficiency is another compelling reason to embrace a design system. When designers and developers have access to a centralized repository of design elements and guidelines, it streamlines the creation process. It eliminates the need to reinvent the wheel for every project, reducing redundancy and minimizing errors. This efficiency is particularly valuable when working on large-scale applications or when collaborating with a team of diverse talents.

Consistency in approach and accessibility

What comes for free. Is a phrase thrown around when working on the design system. Its value tells other teams that "you can get all this for free and out of the box". A thousand and one nuances are taken care of by a dedicated team so others don't have to

Successes

Improvements to developer satisfaction skyrocketed within Blue. Especially by teams that did not have their own software engineers.

Other notable improvements

• Won over teams that were initially adversarial to design and the design system
• Reduce software labor hours on projects "A month down to days"
• Onboarding sped up from weeks to hours
• Internal apps passed audits more regularly or with fewer red flags