Cross-Company / 2020-Present
Design Systems
Multiple design systems built at Knak, Arctic Wolf, InFlight, and D2L, reducing implementation times by 3-4x.
Design Highlights
Overview
I built and led design systems across four organizations with different stacks and constraints: D2L (.NET MVC, then web components), InFlight (Angular and Bootstrap 5), Arctic Wolf (React and Tailwind), and Knak (Vue, Shadcn, and Tailwind). The broadest challenges were InFlight's multi-brand system for hundreds of customer themes and Knak's gradual replacement of legacy UI.
Challenge
Each organization faced the same core problem—product teams reinventing UI components, leading to inconsistent experiences, slow development, and mounting design debt—but each had unique constraints. InFlight needed to support hundreds of different customer brands and themes within a single system. Knak had a legacy product that couldn't be rewritten overnight. D2L required WCAG AA Gold certification for accessibility compliance. Arctic Wolf needed to unify a rapidly growing product surface.
Approach
At InFlight, I created shared components and an abstraction layer that supported hundreds of brands without changing the components. At Knak, I adopted Shadcn and Tailwind for new work and established a Design Systems working group to align requirements, Figma assets, and legacy replacement. At Arctic Wolf, I co-led React system development; at D2L, I designed within the mandatory accessible platform system.
Solution
I tailored the component strategy to each organization's stack and adoption reality. InFlight used brand-agnostic components with a theming layer. Knak introduced the modern system gradually while a working group aligned design and engineering. D2L enforced accessibility at the component level, contributing to WCAG AA Gold certification.
Impact
Reduced implementation times by 3-4x across organizations. Achieved WCAG AA Gold certification at D2L. Reduced design debt by 20% at Arctic Wolf. Improved UI polish and usability, reduced bugs and maintenance costs, and decreased support calls. At Knak, the gradual adoption approach has allowed the team to modernize without disrupting the existing product, with all new features built on the modern system.
Key Learnings
I learned that design-system adoption has to match the organization. Compliance can drive mandatory adoption; legacy products often need a working group and gradual migration. The hardest problem is not building components, but creating enough flexibility for diverse needs without losing consistency or governance.