Aviva: Global Atomic Design System
Leadership • Components design • UX • DesignOps • Design Systems
Leading the evolution of Aviva's WCAG AA Atomic Design System for all Aviva product teams globally
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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 anyone of 100+ designers at Aviva to contribute to the system
My role and team
UX Lead managing two mid/senior UX and the day-to-day work for three visual designers
I changed to co-lead with one of the visual designers
The whole scrum team included three developers, a part-time scrum master and a product owner
Goals
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 & research practices to the forefront of our day-to-day work
Have patterns that would uplift usability and user experience
Challenges to navigate
The team were losing insight from each country about their unique products, cultural nuances and contextual user feedback.
They weren't building relationships with consuming teams to learn their use cases and pattern needs and ultimately encourage adoption.
There was no strategy for growing the system, and the team was pressured into focusing on delivery over the usefulness of a pattern.
“Design activities" happened late in a user story lifecycle. The processes didn't inherently involve design early and support research insight guiding priorities.
Outcomes
I fostered cross-discipline collaboration, leading to a >50% increase in sprint velocity
~£4 million development cost savings (UK)
I introduced design sprints that provided stronger ‘design’ ownership belief in team members
We became Research & Design led with tri-track agile streams allowing us to focus on achieving our goals
We grew adoption by product teams around the world and enabled anyone at Aviva to contribute to the system
Used by ~120 Designers in 9 Countries
60% component growth in 18 months
6 Research Studies to guide the direction
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More detail for this case study is listed on the approach and learnings page.
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