The Meridian Design System
When I joined Assent in 2018, the design landscape was chaotic and unorganized. Although there was a design guide, it was outdated and hidden within the product design team. The guide was neither well-shared nor well-followed. The lack of a unified design language resulted in a growing amount of design debt, inefficient components and patterns, and over two dozen font styles and colour variations. Designers were still creating components from scratch, and although there were efforts to do critiques and team design reviews, not having a centralized source of truth was adding to the problem.
Rebranding as a Catalyst
Assent’s Series C funding in late 2021 marked a new growth phase, especially in Europe, prompting a complete rebrand. This shift provided the ideal moment to launch Meridian, our first comprehensive design system aimed at establishing a unified design standard.
Building Meridian
To create Meridian, we audited our existing guidelines and examined design systems from companies like Shopify and IBM. Insights from interviews with brand, marketing, engineering, and product teams informed our strategy. Designed in Figma and documented in Confluence, Meridian was then incorporated into a UI hub, ensuring consistency across all products and services.
Collaborative Efforts
Coordinating among various teams posed challenges, especially with aligning content and brand elements. While updating our legacy platform, we also developed a new platform using Meridian as a foundation. Stakeholder feedback sessions were crucial, as we faced resistance regarding primary color choices, but we maintained our focus on revitalizing the product UI to engage users.
Core Components
Guided by our new brand, we refined the colour palette for accessibility and semantic accuracy. Meridian established foundational design standards supported by visuals to illustrate key elements.
Results and Impact
Meridian transformed our design process into a cohesive, efficient practice. The centralized design system eliminated isolated efforts, allowing cross-team contributions and freeing up our platform team’s time. Insights from 2023 revealed that our improved UI and UX were top decision factors in the European market.
Reflections
The experience highlighted the value of a strategic roadmap that everyone can align with. Despite resource constraints, Meridian became a collaborative investment, benefiting teams across the organization and fostering shared ownership.
