Xylem’s digital maturity and focused on building more consistent digital products has been increasing. A need for a centralized resource and source-of-truth for design and development was recognized.

I led this project and directly created many of the component. I also managed the work of multiple designers who contributed to this project, as well as front-end developers who are building out Angular and React version of the system.

1: Establish a single-source-of-truth for Xylem’s digital product language.

2: Create a contribution model for many designers to contribute.

Prior to my arrival at Xylem, another team had tried to build out a design system and unfortunately failed. I wanted to understand what went wrong, and through talking with several folks across the business who had interactions with the previous effort, I learned that the main issue was that the effort was too grandiose — they tried to boil the ocean.

As a result, I knew I had to be very strategic with how we would begin working on a new design system. I knew we needed one, but even saying “design system” across the organization was met with sighs or eye-rolls. Ultimately I decided it best to start small, and add to the growing set of components and guidelines with each successive product design until a critical mass was reached.

Over the course of the next several months, we pulled each good component from each new design and organically built out Gravity. At the same time, we made a point to demonstrate and evangelize at every opportunity the value of a design system.

The benefits became obvious and we were able to finally start calling Gravity a design system. 🙂

Gravity is a living project, and one that will never end. We continue to add to the system and iterate on the components within.

The number of resources dedicated to Gravity has grown recently to include a full-time front-end developer and a full-time senior designer. Working with the team, we are establishing release schedules (minor and major), contribution models, request workflows, and prioritizing the existing backlog of components and templates.

Across the organization Gravity is common knowledge amongst design, development, and product, and adherence to the standards set is something even senior leadership is paying attention to. There is much work to be done, but the improvements are huge, and the future bright for Gravity and, along with some other strategic improvements, so too is the future of UX across Xylem.