Aerospace is one of the most complex and challenging environments to design for–I love it.
Blue Origin
At Blue Origin I lead our design system which is used across dozens of internal software applications. In addition to visual design, I work to help the team establish best practices and approaches for successful product design. I also spend a significant portion of my time improving the work of our team of UX designers through education, tool building and collaboration.
Designing a complex design system for aerospace applications
Designing and building a fully functional design system that meets the needs of a complex aerospace production environment is challenging. I’ve architected a comprehensive system that spans across Figma and React, allowing for rapid production and implementation. This system handles everything from color themes and typography to complex interactive components specific to aerospace operations.
The aerospace context introduces unique requirements around readability in various lighting conditions, precision interactions for critical operations, and compliance with industry standards. Our design system addresses these challenges while maintaining visual cohesion and usability.
Building and shipping production code
I also manage development and implementation of components in production with a small team of engineers. One successful project has been combining our design and production documentation into a holistic system. My deep technical understanding of front-end dev has helped us bridge a gap and create components that are easier to use in figma and in production.
Measurable outcomes and real-world impact
Our design system dramatically improved development velocity and consistency across dozens of applications. Engineers can now implement complex UI patterns in a fraction of the time previously required, and users benefit from a more intuitive, consistent experience across all tools.
One particularly successful feature was implementing programmatic dark mode support across all components, allowing for better visibility in and future opportunities to implement other themes to handle the diverse group of users and challenging lighting conditions encountered in aerospace environments.