Vector - Design Systems
BACKSTORY
Vector has an array of digital properties that have been expanding as other business units have been added to the family. This presented an opportunity to bring brand assets, guidelines, and content in line across the organisation. Vector worked with UiRevolution and The Goat Farm to engage key stakeholders and provide a recommendation for an effective way to manage and scale Vector’s digital experiences.
WHY WE DID IT
Design Systems have been gaining significant traction globally. The business case for them is extremely strong for larger companies and enterprise environments. Design Systems are the single source of truth for a company’s digital presence, internal design, front-end development, and communications. In addressing stakeholder needs and understanding the value of this system we established these key success factors:
Decrease development/design costs.
Improve quality and consistency of work across multiple business units and departments.
Improve workflow speed & increase efficiencies
Reduce technical & design debt
Increase effective communication and knowledge sharing across departments and with third parties.
Protects against the improper use of assets – more efficient quality control
HOW WE DID IT
We undertook a range of interviews, research, and a Co-Design session with Vector to ensure we were able to understand and mitigate any barriers and to realise a successful foundation for the Design System.
It’s important that Design Systems involve every team that works within the company’s digital space as decisions that make it into the Design System have an effect on the wider business. By assessing the needs of the various stakeholders we were able to propose tools that would serve and increase adoption.
We dug deep into the best tools available. While there are a plethora of tools that could make up an elegant design system, we built on our existing knowledge and scoured the digital globe for the best in class.
A methodology was required to give a definition and shape the structure of this system. We bought, borrowed, and invented terminology to create our own dictionary. This glossary of terms, including organisms, molecules, atoms, particles, and design tokens began breathing life into Vector’s very own Design System.
Coupled with the ideal selection of tools and methodologies, we began designing an ecosystem to most elegantly build an effective workflow.
WHAT WE DID
While it looked good on paper, we wanted to truly challenge our thinking. The team built a Proof of Concept (POC) to test our ideas, decisions, and workflows practically.
The requirements of the POC were to take a ‘button’ component from design to development, through to the ‘Storefront’ where it would be available for use by relevant users. The POC illustrated how we would manage multiple versions of our components, ensuring that outdated versions were still accessible.
We called this Design System Edison. Of course!
OUTCOME
The recommended Design System showed immense potential for Vector. The concept, tools, and workflow provided in our POC give Vector a solid foundation to realise its full potential.
This project was a powerful way to challenge the status quo and de-silo operations, centralise key assets, and support Vector’s content life cycle. Crucially it can empower and connect Vectors’ people internally, engage partners, and be a valuable tool for the wider Vector community.
UiRev and TGF relished this challenge, and are excited to realise Vector’s ongoing drive to lead the transformation of the energy sector.
