The IBM Design Language, the Carbon design system and the Carbon for Cloud and Cognitive pattern asset library strive to bring unification to product experiences across IBM.

Taking design system capabilities to the next level and maximizing guidance consumability by increasing awareness and simplifying usage. Delivering measurable and scalable experiences across our customers’ journey. 

An internal platform filled with design tools and resources for designers and developers.

This platform was designed to help create consistent experiences across the IBM Design Language, the Carbon design system, and the Carbon for Cloud and Cognitive pattern asset library striving to bring unification to product experiences across IBM. 

The team's main goal was to bring unification across its portfolio for all customer touch-points, and it needed to be a collaborative effort between products and its different Pattern asset libraries. 

In developing this internal digital platform, the design team’s primary responsibilities were comprised of three challenges...

Adapting the user interface and visual our products and IBM’s evolving design language.

Create a learning platform that is scalable and can fit a diverse range of content.

Developing flexible UX patterns that can be applied to different forms of content and learning objectives.

Carbon relies heavily on the design community to contribute to and grow the system. What started out as an initiative around aligning a suite of products ended up becoming a broader design coalition and partnership across every IBM business unit.  

Two key groups where created: the Design System Adoption Guild (DSAG) and the Design System Implementation Team (DSIT). These groups brought rigor to our cross org design collaboration, particularly in the area of designing with consistency. 

Through research, audits, and iterations, many new patterns, components and guidelines where contributed back to the Carbon design system.

Working collectively we found new opportunities to contribute back and educate designers along the way. Alongside improving patterns, I provided representation in design leadership for legacy products that needed more data-dense experiences which resulted in the compact sizes of almost every component inside Carbon. 

One of the key efforts was to bring alignment between every business unit and across the 650+ products. Redefining how designers, team and suites of products work together, breaking down silos and scaling how we collectively solve problems across groups that have never had the opportunity to do so before. Being at the center of strategic collaborations towards guiding and shaping the outcomes.

“I would like to thank you for helping us so much this year. You were super supportive and generous with your time. Many designers look up to you for your design expertise, kindness, and zen attitude. We look forward to collaborating with you in 2021!” – Crystal Sicat, Business Analytics design director 

The newly aligned components served the entire organization as a complement to the core Carbon components. This enabled us to move forward with a larger community of supporters and a centralized model built around tighter cross-org/cross-IBM collaboration to deliver experiences that embody unified offerings, uniquely IBM.