When I started development of the Order Design System, I set out to mature the documentation that outlined how we implemented patterns to create a holistic experience, with the advancements Figma was making in how they supported Design Systems with Variables, Variants and enhancements to Asset management - it was time to look at how we could enhance our Design System to use these enhancements to make the lives of our designers easier.

‍

Over time, as various product & design teams worked toward their individual goals, we ended up with fragmented implementations of our experiences in the Order platform.

Our Design Systems were great at collating what resources and patterns we had available, and its accompanying documentation was great at clarifying how to use the system, and some nuance around ensuring complex patterns or flows felt consistent. But, during our design team chats, a recurring piece of feedback kept popping up, "Sometimes it takes too long to find which patterns would be best to use"

It's true, I felt this — I was constantly referring back to my own personal implementations of patterns to know which ones to grab for a new project, or, spending time looking through past experiences to see if a pattern could be reused.

‍