ROLE
Product Designer
TIMELINE
6 Months (2024)
TOOLS
Figma, Storybook, Linear
Context
My ROLE
CrowdRiff is a visual content marketing platform that caters mostly to travel and tourism brands. It helps them discover, manage, and distribute original, high-quality visual content to engage their audiences and inspire travel. The platform specializes in leveraging user-generated content (UGC) from social media such as Instagram, allowing brands to source images and videos shared by travelers to promote destinations, attractions, and experiences.
I joined the team as they embarked on a product revamp, a complete overhaul of their old UI with the same functionalities users knew and loved and new features they were sure to love as well.
I owned the end-to-end design system creation, from auditing new and existing designs to implementing components and driving adoption across all teams.
The problem
Business/User Impact
CrowdRiff’s products suffered from inconsistent UI patterns, leading to redundant design efforts and inefficient design-to-development handoffs. Angular Material no longer met their needs, and the lack of documentation made onboarding new designers difficult.
These challenges resulted in slow feature development cycles, a fragmented brand identity, and poor scalability for new features. Meanwhile, competitors with sleeker UI were gaining traction, cutting into CrowdRiff’s market share.
The Process
Research & AUdit
I conducted a comprehensive UI audit, identifying redundant components and inconsistencies. Collaborating with marketing, we ensured a strong brand presence while learning from past challenges. By working closely with lead designers, I aligned with their needs and built out the roadmap.
defining the foundation
Collaborated with stakeholders to define design principles and establish scalable foundations, including color systems, typography, spacing, and grid systems.
BUIlding components
Designed 50+ reusable UI components using Figma and the customizable UI library Shadcn. Implemented design tokens for scalable, consistent styling across platforms and collaborated closely with developers to integrate these components into our Storybook library.
Documentation & ONbOarding
Created detailed documentation to guide usage and maintenance. I led office hours and managed a dedicated Slack channel to support teams and gather feedback. This was an ongoing process to ensure the design sytem was up to date and always running smoothly.
THE IMPACT
A fully functional design system, featuring 50+ reusable UI components, that has standardized design patterns across all teams, reducing redundancies and ensuring consistency. Comprehensive documentation and guidelines provide designers and developers with clear reasoning behind decisions, aiding future improvements. Design tokens enable seamless cross-platform scalability, simplifying features like light and dark mode. Teams now have a clear process for requesting new components or updates. Since its launch, the system has led to a 30% reduction in development time for new features. Currently adopted by 80% of Crowdriff’s products, aiming for full integration soon.