Design System
Building a scalable design system to support multiple products across Global HealthX
Role
Product designer
Team
2 Product Designers, 2 Engineers
Timeline
Sept 2025 - Mar 2026
Scope
20+ responsive components, tokens & copy guidelines
The problem with what we already had
At a fast-paced startup where priorities are constantly evolving, new projects come up on an almost daily basis. One thing stayed consistent: Each product had evolved independently, creating inconsistent patterns, duplicated design work, and components that were difficult to reuse. As we redesigned the therapist platform, we used the opportunity to build a shared foundation.
1
The system was fragmented, incomplete and outdated
2
Screens showed UI inconsistencies, even within a single platform
3
No shared foundation existed for future products
KEY DECISIONS
Our approach
Started with a foundation
We used Untitled UI as a base, then adapted its structure, tokens, and patterns around our product needs.
Built around real product needs
We built the components needed right away for the therapist platform, but designed them so they would hold up across future products.
Built alongside engineering
Components, tokens and documentation were produced with engineers rather than handed to them, which meant far less friction at implementation.
WHAT WE BUILT
What we built
Tokens
A tiered token system built as local Figma variables across typography, spacing, colour and layout, structured around atomic design principles.
Components
A library of 20+ components with carefully considered variants and states - buttons, input fields, breadcrumbs, tabs, tags, progress bars, notifications and more.
Copy guidelines
Alongside the visual components, I wrote copy guidelines into the system, so tone, clarity and wording stayed consistent across the product.
BEYOND THE SYSTEM
Making the system usable beyond Figma
We worked closely with engineers to extend our ownership past design, into how the system actually behaved in practice.
Documentation
We built shared documentation across spreadsheets and Figma, defining each component, how far it could be customised, and what engineers needed to implement it.
Workflow
Running the platform revamp and the system build at once forced us to invent a working rhythm with every stakeholder, which turned out to be the most efficient part of the project.
OUTCOMES
The impact
Faster feature delivery
Reusable patterns reduced repeated decisions across new features
Consistency across products
Shared components and conventions created a common product language
Adopted beyond the original platform
The system expanded beyond Plan & Track to support other CognitiveBotics products
REFLECTIONS
My takeaways and learnings
Designing beyond screens
This project shifted my work from designing individual screens to thinking in systems - patterns, scalability, and what still holds up in a year.
Collaborating with engineers
Building this system together from the very beginning not only taught me how to work together, but also surfaced constraints early and prevented a lot of rework.
Design systems keep evolving
This was not a one and done process. Components and rules continued to evolve based on product needs, and will continue to require updates.