Orbro Building a design system from principles to patterns
I built a design system for a digital twin platform where multiple products and third-party plugins needed a consistent experience and a more efficient workflow.
Why the design system was needed
Multiple products and external contributors made consistency difficult without a shared foundation.
Principles as the system's foundation
Product-informed principles became a basis for design decisions and an expression of Orbro's design philosophy.
Functional component definitions
Reusable components were selected and defined through variants, anatomy, and states.
Component UX guidance
Usage, variants, and cautions were documented to prevent inconsistent choices in the same context.
Component UI guidance
Consistent anatomy, appearance, and state presentation improved both design consistency and implementation efficiency.
Typography optimized for data
A unified type system replaced platform-specific fonts and improved readability and layout stability in data-heavy interfaces.
Color system and semantic tokens
Product colors were organized into tonal palettes and semantic tokens based on usage.
Icons that express the brand
Collaboration with brand design produced five icon categories balancing clarity and brand expression.
Layouts for responsive and data contexts
A 4px base and 16-column grid support responsive cards, data tables, and charts.
System assets for efficient design
Components, typography, color, and icons were published as Figma assets to reduce repetitive work.
A coded library for engineering efficiency
Documentation and assets were shared with engineers and implemented as a reusable code library.
What I learned
The work deepened my understanding of UI roles and context and showed how shared standards remove ambiguity.
