Design Engineer.
Built from first principles.

The Challenge

Build a design system that serves multiple frameworks, enforces consistency at scale, and provides a great developer experience. Every decision needed to be rooted in principles, not conventions.

The Approach

• Designed tokens using W3C Design Tokens spec (JSON5) with semantic naming
• Built a token compiler (Style Dictionary) that outputs CSS, SCSS, JS, TypeScript
• Created 62 React components with full keyboard navigation and a11y
• Implemented alpha transforms for transparent color variants
• Added runtime token helpers and CSS variable references
• Built Storybook with theme switcher for real-time preview
• Integrated changesets for versioning and changelogs

Technical Decisions

The system uses a monorepo with pnpm workspaces. Tokens are authored in JSON5 (supporting comments and trailing commas) with W3C spec compliance. The compiler generates platform-specific output (CSS custom properties, SCSS variables, JS objects, TypeScript declarations). Stylelint plugin enforces token usage in stylesheets.

Outcome

A production-ready design system with type-safe tokens, framework-agnostic web components, and comprehensive documentation. The system reduces design inconsistency, accelerates development, and provides a single source of truth for the product UI.

// Design Tokens (JSON5)
{
  "color": {
    "primary": {
      "$value": "{ color.brand.primary }",
      "$type": "color",
      "$extensions": {
        "w3c/dt": { "name": "primary" }
      }
    },
    "brand": {
      "primary": {
        "$value": "#f97316",
        "$type": "color"
      },
      "primary-alpha": {
        "$value": "{ color.brand.primary.$value } / { opacity.25 }",
        "$type": "color",
        "$extensions": { "alpha": { "transform": "alpha" } }
      }
    }
  },
  "spacing": {
    "sm": { "$value": "0.5rem", "$type": "spacing" },
    "md": { "$value": "1rem", "$type": "spacing" },
    "lg": { "$value": "2rem", "$type": "spacing" }
  }
}