DonorsChoose Design System: The first design system at DonorsChoose, built to create a unified library of reusable components. This system improved consistency, streamlined the design-to-development process, and set a scalable foundation for future product enhancements.
The challenge:
When I joined the team, I found that design files were fragmented across multiple locations, leading to inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Without a single source of truth, maintaining design cohesion was a challenge.
This created an opportunity to build a centralized design system—one that would unify all website designs, improve collaboration, and streamline the design-to-development workflow.
The solution:
To create the design system, I implemented an atomic design approach, starting with the smallest, reusable components—buttons, icons, typography—and building up to larger elements like form fields, cards, and complete page layouts. This structure ensured visual consistency across the site, provided flexibility for design updates, and enabled the team to scale and maintain the system efficiently as the site evolved.
The atomic approach streamlined the design and development process, making it more efficient while ensuring all new features stayed aligned with the core brand and user experience goals.
My role in this project:
I was the lead designer, focusing on experience, usability, front-end styling and structuring.
