Infarm

Designing a Scalable and Consistent Design System for Infarm’s Vertical Farming Digital Tools

Project Background

Additional Credits

My Responsibilities

When I joined Infarm, the company had multiple teams working on different tools for managing and monitoring vertical farming operations. These tools lacked a unified design language, which led to inconsistencies and difficulties when scaling or updating the different internal tool.

Challenge & Responsibilities

The main challenge was the lack of consistency across the various software tools being developed by different teams. This led to inefficiencies, duplication of efforts, and confusion for end-users. My task was to build a unified design system that would align all teams, reduce unnecessary work, and create a more seamless experience for the people actually using these tool.

Defining Core Design Principles and UX Values

We started by defining clear Design Principles that would guide all future development. In addition, we created Experience Values to define the user’s needs and expectations, helping us design tools that were not only functional but intuitive and easy to navigate.

Design Principles

Identify Inconsistencies and Start the Path to Consistency

To identify what needed improvement, we conducted a thorough design audit, pinpointing inconsistencies in both design patterns and user flows. We also gathered feedback from front-end engineers and designers, uncovering what they lacked in creating new features and interfaces.

Designing and Documenting Key Components and Patterns

With the insights gathered, we began building Design Kit Libraries for both desktop and mobile platforms, ensuring that each component could be easily reused and scaled across different tools and platforms.

Documentation

Creating a Governance Model for managing and maintaining the Design System

To ensure the design system would continue to evolve and adapt over time, we developed a Governance Model. This model provided a clear process for team members to suggest improvements, request new components, and share feedback.

I can point to several projects which Simon led, where he successfully demonstrated his strong communication skills, his ability to facilitate large remote workshops, and accountability when delivering high-quality design assets in a timely manner. His work on the Infarms design systems libraries and design strategy best illustrates this.

Ana Da Costa

Design Manager at Infarm

Outcome

By establishing this scalable design system, Infarm’s teams were able to work more efficiently and consistently. Designers and developers had a shared framework to follow, which reduced redundancy and sped up the development process. The design system also helped ensure that the tools were more user-friendly, making it easier for the people working with the vertical farms to manage and monitor their operations as the company grew.

Want to know more about this project?

Back to my Past

Attic

Past

Present

Future

Get in touch,

let’s talk!