Design systems

Around 2013, the Kuali Foundation was a partnership of universities. They worked together to build open source web services. I started a UI pattern library for the student initiative. This established standards and best practices for several product teams. This project taught me about maintenance, versioning, documentation, governance, and political buy-in.

A year later, I started a React component library for a suite of apps at Indiana University. The university’s accessibility experts vetted these components. The icon set composed of custom and open source icons. I systematically adapted the color palette from the university’s brand colors. The product teams integrated the library into a half-dozen apps over two years.

In 2016, a new design office established the university-wide Rivet Design System. I’ve been a regular contributor to Rivet. In 2021, I lead the initial release of the icon set, which supplied Rivet with its first custom element.