Evolving a design system
With more than 24 million active users and 14,000+ pages of content and tools, consumerfinance.gov is an important platform for American consumers and the financial industry.
Maintaining a consistent and accessible experience at this scale depends on a mature design system. As a lead designer at the CFPB, I continually strengthen and evolve the design system through component design, documentation, research, strategy, and more.
About the work
Ongoing challenge
Shepherd a design system that is actively used, trusted, and contributed to. Maintain a living, evolving system through strong governance, research-validated components, and design tools.
My contributions
Component design
User research
Content strategy + writing
Product strategy
Workshop facilitation
Strategic communication
Building tools and resources
Design system documentation
I led the design of the CFPB's design system documentation site, bringing design guidance, implementation details, and code examples together in one place. Previously, design and development documentation lived in separate places, which created gaps in cross-functional understanding and collaboration. Consolidating them into a single source of truth improved collaboration and increased the accuracy and consistency of our components.
CFPB design system documentation site I designed
There are currently
78
pages of components, patterns, and other guidance in the CFPB design system documentation site.
I designed the site's page structure so that roles such as designers and developers could quickly find the guidance they need. The reusable page template now provides a consistent experience across the documentation site, and its integration with the site’s CMS makes ongoing maintenance straightforward.
Page structure I sketched
Final page structure I designed
Beyond building the site, I periodically audit and edit documentation and create new guidance including our Photography and Print styles guidelines.
Photography guidelines page I conceptualized and wrote
Figma library
I help maintain the design system's Figma library, which provides reusable components, styles, and variables that product teams use to rapidly prototype and design consistent, accessible experiences.
Auto layout pattern I created in the design system Figma library
There were
33,712
component insertions from the design system Figma library into product Figma files in 2025.
CMS modules
The design system is integrated into the CFPB site’s CMS, allowing teams to build pages using standardized components instead of recreating UI from scratch.
I help integrate the design system’s components and patterns into the CMS. As an example, I designed an interactive data visualization module that enables page editors to create on-brand, accessible charts without requiring custom design or development work.
More than
14,000
web pages rely on the CFPB design system.
Data visualization module I designed in the CFPB’s site CMS
Improving components through testing
I partner with user researchers to conduct usability testing to ensure design system components and patterns are intuitive and accessible. I led both the redesign and usability testing of a critical mobile navigation pattern, resulting in a 70% improvement in usability. See my Improving mobile navigation case study.
Improving mobile navigation case study
14
design system components and patterns were tested and received a 95% or higher task success rate in our most-recent usability test.
Ensuring adoption
A successful design system depends on adoption. I lead design workshops to gather user feedback, build alignment around the system’s goals and vision, and prioritize future work.
Gathering and affinity mapping insights from design system users to uncover needs and pain points
Leading a collaborative activity to define the design system vision statement
Leading a collaborative “impact vs. effort” activity to prioritize design system work
I also help ensure a clear contribution process for the design system. Partnering with our product manager, I developed a design system governance model. I researched contribution models across federal agencies and wrote a governance process that makes contributing to the design system clear.
Governance model I co-created
