Wayfinder
A design system developed by a Slovenian bleeding-edge cloud solutions company to scale up sales, customer deployments, and internal tools.
CLIENT
3fs NORDIC AB
MY ROLE
UI/UX Design
Problems
- With multiple ongoing initiatives and projects, 3fs struggled to maintain consistent designs and clean code across the organization, leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies.
- The existing prototyping processes were not cost-effective, and hiring more personnel couldn’t address the underlying issues, which were spreading to other areas.
- Taking a pre-built design system wouldn’t be enough; it needed to be compatible with existing solutions and workflows to ensure successful adoption.
- Urgent matters often took priority over long-term initiatives, making it challenging to dedicate resources to the development of a design system.
- The desire for a unique and visually rich design system had to be balanced with technical performance requirements.
Goals
- Cost savings
> help achieve significant cost savings by streamlining design and development processes across multiple initiatives - Consistency and efficiency
> enhance design consistency, code cleanliness, and cost-effective prototyping and improve the overall efficiency of internal tools and client projects - Clear foundations
> establish the system’s foundations in an accessible and future-proof manner, benefiting higher-level components and users - Data visualization enhancement
> address the unique UX considerations related to complex, professional, cloud-based software, simplify data presentation and interaction through tailored data visualization guidelines
Recognizing the need
3fs, an innovative and dynamic environment, struggled with design consistency and code cleanliness due to numerous ongoing projects. Prototyping was costly and inconsistent. The realization that a design system could save costs and ensure consistency convinced the CEO to greenlight the Wayfinder initiative.
Gathering insights
To prepare for Wayfinder’s development, the team lead conducted an inventory of existing software, analyzed workflows, gathered input from the staff, and collaborated with the IT team. These insights proved crucial in making informed architectural decisions, reducing costs, and expediting Wayfinder’s initial adoption. While 3fs had already undergone rebranding, transitioning into product development required substantial effort.
Building a strong foundation
We collaborated closely to establish Wayfinder’s core components – grid, spacers, typography, colors, icons, …. This took time and several iterations, but it paid off as it set a strong foundation for higher-level components and overall user satisfaction. Additional valuable insights were gained after the MVP release of Wayfinder. It helped us with the component scope and the decision to make default choices as smart solutions to common use cases.
Tackling data challenges
3fs specializes in complex, data-intensive software solutions requiring special UX considerations. Data is useless without the ability to visualize and act on it. As one of the main value propositions, the design system aimed to simplify and improve presentation and interaction with data. We added components gradually, as needed, and only for cases that repeatedly appeared in 3fs teams’ custom implementations.
Embracing education
Building our own design system didn’t just give us a complete ownership, but it also provided an invaluable educational opportunity. It was a playground for learning design principles, collaboration, and technical skills. It encouraged a culture of knowledge sharing, adaptability, and improved communication within the team.