Aviva: Global Atomic Design System

Leading the evolution of Aviva's WCAG AA Atomic Design System for all Aviva product teams globally.

LeadershipComponents designUXDesignOpsDesign Systems

Summary

Scaled the design system to include a federated operating model and ~£4 million in development cost savings (UK).

Grew adoption by product teams in 9 countries and enabled 100+ designers at Aviva to contribute to the system.

UX Lead managing two mid/senior UX designers and the day-to-day work for three visual designers, later co-leading with one of the visual designers.

The full scrum team included three developers, a part-time scrum master, and a product owner.

Help early adopters and close their pattern gaps
Grow system adoption around the world
Enable global pattern contribution from anyone at Aviva
Bring design thinking and research practices to the forefront of day-to-day work
Have patterns that would uplift usability and user experience

The team were losing insight from each country about their unique products, cultural nuances, and contextual user feedback
No strategy for growing the system — the team was pressured into focusing on delivery over the usefulness of a pattern
Relationships weren’t being built with consuming teams to learn their use cases and pattern needs
Design activities happened late in a user story lifecycle, with no inherent early involvement or research insight guiding priorities

Fostered cross-discipline collaboration, leading to a >50% increase in sprint velocity
~£4 million development cost savings (UK)
Introduced design sprints that provided stronger design ownership belief in team members
Became research and design led with tri-track agile streams
Grew adoption by product teams around the world — used by ~120 designers in 9 countries
Enabled anyone at Aviva to contribute to the system
60% component growth in 18 months
6 research studies to guide direction

Further detail on approach and learnings is available on the Aviva approach and learnings page.