Building tools for designers
Design systems and enablement
Sometimes being a designer means making sure others have what they need to design. That could be a designer, a developer, a strategist, among others. Every stage of the process needs design, whether its someone considering a possible future strategy or a designer creating a pixel-perfect component for their experience.
For many years at Red Hat, we had designers reinventing the wheel every day. And I was one of them. I was opposed to using pre-existing design, feeling like I’d lose the ability to add my design expertise to whatever was created.
But I learned the value of sharing design and development. That tabset that we had redesigned over and over worked differently in every use case. Some of them adapted down well for mobile. Others didn’t. Some had accessibility built in, while others were very inaccessible. I also learned what a cognitive load it was for each user to relearn how to use our tabs.
Creating our design system
In working with very, very talented designers, I helped to establish Red Hat’s digital design system, in partnership with an already existing design system used for our products.
Our design system has matured, and we’ve built a significant team around it. We’ve seen the value and it’s helped us to become more consistent, accessible and user-friendly.
I’m proud to have lead the team to become what it is today, and build some of the tools we’ve established for making design accessible to everyone.
