Evaluating a Design System

Context

The Verizon Design System makes four core promises: quality, consistency, inclusivity, and speed and efficiency. This evaluation was part of Design System Promise, a research program testing whether the system delivers on them. Adoption was one part of the picture: some product teams were detaching from central library components and building their own.

Approach

I designed and ran the evaluation on my own, in two strands that matched its two objectives.

• Adoption and detachment. I configured an AI design audit tool to analyze component analytics and find the 10 components with the highest detachment rates. I then ran in-depth interviews with 13 designers and developers across live digital product teams about their process, workflow speed and the friction of working with the system.
• Validating the promises. Moderated usability testing with the general population, assistive technology usability testing, and an expert accessibility heuristic evaluation of experiences built heavily from design system components.

Findings

• Demonstrated that system components made delivery 5 times faster than custom builds, saved about 25% of redesign time, shortened development cycles by more than a month, and came with pre-vetted accessibility compliance
• Friction between web and mobile-first components: a web-first engineering bias, with outdated viewports that didn't support mobile-first layouts
• No “mega components”: a rigid atomic structure that lacked the complex, ready-made components designers needed for their varied use cases
• A need for better documentation on appropriate use and on configuring components for accessibility
• Poor discoverability, and error-prone transitions between versions

What changed

The findings drove strategic roadmap items: a Figma bulk-updating plugin, accessibility documentation, low-fidelity wireframe libraries, motion expansion packs, and a decentralized contribution model so product teams can add to the system instead of relying on a central team alone. The audit isolated specific gaps and informed updates to the central library. I also recommended making design system usage part of leadership acceptance criteria, setting aside sprint time for visual quality defects, and expanding Figma and front-end coding training. The design system team built the mobile-first recommendations into the system, along with changes to support a wider range of use cases in future releases, and adoption has grown since.