Design Systems and UX Process

Specific, reusable, scalable design systems to create consistency, transparency and confidence

DESCRIPTION
Ted Billups led teams to create and improve in-house and client design systems, agile and hybrid processes, and organizational architecture in cross-functional environments.
When
1996-Present
Who
Ted Billups
client

Internal Agency and for in-house groups such as AICPA, Ingersoll Rand, Hyatt, and United Airlines.

challenge

Solve persistent and future challenges with team satisfaction, scale, consistency, efficiency and other organizational challenges around design, development, product, management and vision. The goal has always been to create a highly functional organization through well planned and executed design systems.

solution

While at agencies and working with in-house I created design language systems to empower UX design and cross-functional teams to create and scale in a consistent, efficient manner.  These design systems worked with both unique team needs and enterprise software such as content management and ecommerce (especially Adobe Experience Manager / Adobe Marketing Cloud).

impact

Better quality, faster implementation, satisfied teams, reduced support costs, happier end-users and stakeholders. Overall, my organizations were more profitable, ran smoother and had very little turnover.

Design Systems and Process for products and agencies
Visual Components for AICPA's family of 10 sub-brands between 50 websites. Account Authentication State Headers below:
Visual Components for AICPA's family of 10 sub-brands between 50 websites. Branded Headers below:
Cross-Functional Enterprise Agency Process RACI Matrix. These are my UX and Front-End cards. (This is from 2016, I would do some things differently now and new software has refined areas)
* Specifications from Visual Design to Front-End and Full-Stack engineering are now done primarily in Zeplin, Invision, Sketch, Figma or other tools.
Cross-Functional Enterprise Agency Process drill-down into UX and Front-End practices. (This is 2016, I would do some things differently now!)
Authentic Engagement requires a slightly modified UX process; a combination of game design, behavior change design, user centered and other skills.

A process for creating Authentic, Sustained Engagement in software UX using Game, Behavioral and Engagement Design

My Authentic Engagement Design Process is currently password protected.
Please reach out if you’d like to discuss.

Some of the questions it seeks to answer:

Goals and Hypotheses

What hypothesis or goal are you trying to achieve for the business?
For the users?

How will you measure success over the short and long term?

What methods of user research are ideal?

Users

What are your user’s motivations? 

Their abilities and limitations?

Their behaviors and emotions?

What is their ideal journey?

Is behavioral modeling required? Level of personalization?

Engagement

What types of engagement should be explored?
When should engagement be applied and how?

What types of engagement and mechanics are currently being used?
Current Metrics?

Implement

What will your prototypes accomplish?

What scorecards will be used to rank idea boards, wireframes and prototypes?

When and how does visual and interaction design get applied?

I developed a cross-functional startup process for the design and engineering groups when the agency grew beyond 100 people.

I pioneered the Adobe Experience Manager Component Library for our UX design, front-end and software engineering teams. It was a key offering for sales and marketing, product innovation and management. 

Please reach out if you’d like to discuss the AEM Component Library or design systems.

Contact Ted Billups
© Billups Consulting LLC