Department of Fisheries and Oceans
Creating design consistency across a multi-product design portfolio
Overview
The Fisheries design portfolio includes a number of information system products intended to monitor and manage fishery-related tasks for both internal and external users. These products overlap in certain functionality and intent, but were largely being developed independently across separate teams.
I supported design and research efforts across three of these products and led an initiative to address design inconsistencies in individual products and improve collaboration efforts across the portfolio.
Goals
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Develop and implement a strategy for identifying and addressing consistency issues in the newest product
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Build consistency across the portfolio to improve design processes and user experiences
Role
Designer
Responsibilities
Design consistency, wireframing, prototyping, research support
Team
Design, Research, Business, Development
Tools
Figma, Miro, Azure DevOps, Excel, Loop
The problem
Fast-paced development and frequent requirement changes introduced design inconsistencies, with little time to make changes before launch. Additionally, limited cross-product collaboration and an immature design system caused duplicated efforts on creating custom patterns and misalignment across related products.
Business needs: inter and intra-product design consistency with minimal time spent on fixes and re-work
User needs: Clear, consistent, and efficient way to complete licensing and fishery related workflows in compliance with government regulations.
How might we
How might we develop a collaborative design strategy that supports consistent and clear workflows across related products while limiting development rework?
Research
Identifying sources of inconsistency
With a hard release deadline approaching, the highest priority was the newest fisheries product. I started by reviewing existing design work and current processes to identify the main issues leading to inconsistent design and development work in the product:
Custom components and patterns
Limitations in the new design system led designers to create custom components and patterns, increasing inconsistency as changes accumulated without documentation or governance.
Lack of direct collaboration
Designers working across related products collaborated infrequently, leading to duplicated efforts and missed opportunities to reuse existing learnings and work.
No clear documentation or guidelines
The lack of clear design guidelines and specifications caused inconsistent pattern usage and created confusion for developers during implementation.
Strategy
Creating frameworks for better processes
After identifying these issues, I developed strategies to address short-term problems in the product and improve future design efforts across the portfolio.
Ideation
Resolving issues
Created system for tracking, reviewing, and implementing changes to inconsistent design elements and standards within the product.
Improving processes
Collaborated with design and research team members to create and refine design guidelines to limit future inconsistency.
Creating portfolio-wide standards
Met with designers across all products to review and compare work, workshop challenges, and share insights
Implementation
By applying the strategies and frameworks I developed for design consistency, I was able to address short and long-term issues within the product. Additionally, I expanded these findings and processes to my design work on other products within the portfolio.
Applied design standards
Applied design consistency changes to existing and new workflows and documented decisions on pattern usage, design specs, and functionality
Created system for easy updates
Created a library for custom components to reduce unintentional inconsistency in design work and automate component-level design changes.
Enabled accurate implementation
Created standard page templates to reduce confusion and increase consistency when developers are implementing designs.
Bridged the gap between products
Collaborated with designers to resolve inconsistency across different products, and shared learnings to inform current design work.
Outcome
A framework for design consistency and collaborative processes
The results of the consistency initiative and collaboration efforts helped build the foundations for easier, more efficient design processes within and across products in the Fisheries portfolio. The new collaborative process, shared design libraries, and consistency fixes set a new standard for effective and efficient processes and outcomes.
Consistency guidelines and design direction
As a result of this consistency initiative, we implemented both short and long-term improvements to individual products, design processes, and portfolio-level collaboration.
Resolved immediate issues
Increased awareness of existing issues and supported implementation of priority changes for initial launch.
Developed long-term strategies
Developed assets and guidelines to support long-term consistency and reduce future workload for design and development teams.
Improved development handoff
Improved accuracy of design implementation with detailed page templates and improved handoff documentation.
Created framework for collaboration
Bridged the gap between related products to develop a framework for more consistent collaboration and sharing insights across product teams.
Next steps
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Further integration: Expanding on shared design libraries and workshops to increase consistency between products and better document findings and challenges that can be applied across teams.
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Prioritization: Developing strategy for managing and prioritizing consistency updates based on available time and effort with subsequent releases.
Learnings
Meaningful collaboration is built on shared value
While branch-wide meetings were under-utilized due to incompatible schedules and limited context across teams, small and relevant workshops for shared challenges supported efficient and effective collaboration.
Plan for change before it happens
In fast-paced projects, issues compound over time. Planning for change and building structures to document and manage design decisions is a critical step to support effective working processes and usable experiences.