SkimmShopping

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Product Design

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Design Systems

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UI

Social Template Library

A local design system to optimize social production, resources, and output

THE TEAM & PROJECT LENGTH /

Lead Designer 👋, Senior Brand Manager, and Senior Brand Designer. 1 month.

BACKGROUND /

When a brand refresh was imminent, a new social design system became essential to implement updates and ensure consistency across all channels and sub-brands. The design system also needed to be user-friendly and accessible to non-designers, as the social team had to post quickly and efficiently. Collaborating with brand designers and social editors, I led efforts to build a comprehensive library of templates that optimized resources and streamlined the production of cohesive, high-quality content.

Business goals /

  • Reduce dependency on the creative team to produce new assets on demand (too short deadline, with few resources)

  • Collaborate with the brand and creative designers to create templates, flexible and easy enough for the social team to produce themselves

  • Educate and train both designers and social editors to use Figma, build components, and export templates without breaking away from the design system

COURSE OF ACTION /

  1. Audit and assessment

  2. Understanding design constraints

  3. Pressure testing and iteration

global vs local libraries /

Before jumping straight into each individual social template libraries, I first had to pull styles and components that were foundational to both master and sub-brand.

local base components /

After setting up the global library, I then went ahead and created local libraries for each of the brands. Throughout the entire process, I had the designers pressure test so that we can smooth out most of the kinks before sharing with the social team.

system launch & education /

After leading demos and education sessions, I stressed that the feedback loop was never closed. If there were any problems with the templates that caused any disruption or an editor to break the component, I needed to be informed so that we can work on improving each template.

results & final thoughts /

When looking back at this project, I sometimes wish I had simplified the design system even more, as some aspects may have been overly complex. Nevertheless, it was a major success, as the social team seamlessly adopted and utilized the system, maintaining linked components in the libraries with full autonomy. (Huge bonus that even the non-designers began loving Figma as much I do.)