Building an Accessible Design System at Creative Market

Effective communication is essential in Product Design, serving as the guiding principle. When properly managed, a Design System can lay the groundwork for future possibilities. This design system, created in Figma, focused on enhancing accessibility and interaction affordance, aligning with existing brand colors, and utilized Google M3 UI Kit to streamline workflows and improve the user experience across all products.

Brand

Creative Market

Role

Sr Product Designer

Platforms

Desktop / Mobile / Internal apps

Date

Jan 23, 2024

Collection of design components and patterns
Collection of design components and patterns

Base components and common UI patterns

Background

The design system aimed to unite design and engineering through a shared language, promoting collaboration. It facilitated communication and established a common workflow between the two fields. This was achieved using a common vocabulary, which saved time and prevented miscommunications.

Developer button audit
Developer button audit

Developer Creative Market button audit

Design System Stakeholder Map
Design System Stakeholder Map

Material color guidance and accessibility test results

Approach

The system incorporated design patterns that served as efficient, reusable solutions, making the development processes faster and saving valuable time. These patterns provided predictability, reduced uncertainties in project outcomes, promoted scalability, and ensured a consistent user experience, contributing to a cohesive and reliable product.

  • Business Efficiency: The design patterns optimized development processes, saving time.

  • Predictable Outcomes: The proven solutions embodied in design patterns minimized uncertainties in project outcomes.

  • Scalability and Consistency: The reuse of design patterns promoted scalability and ensured a consistent user experience.

Creative Market brand assets, icons and svgs
Creative Market brand assets, icons and svgs

Creative Market brand assets, icons and svgs

Interactive and core color tokens for Creative Market
Interactive and core color tokens for Creative Market

Interactive and core color tokens for Creative Market

Typeography scale and font sizing
Typeography scale and font sizing

Typeography scale and font sizing

Creative Market Button component
Creative Market Button component

Creative Market Button component

Text field component documentation
Text field component documentation

Text field component documentation

Impact

The design system's impact is evident in the improvements made to the Guest Checkout and Buy Box. For the Guest Checkout, the system simplified the flow, reduced user effort by only collecting essential information, and used prominent calls-to-action. For the Buy Box, the system revamped the interaction design, improved banner messaging, and made the buying experience for fonts responsive on mobile devices. Thus, the design system played a crucial role in the success of these projects.