As UX Lead for the Design System team at John Lewis, I inherited an outdated design system with poor documentation, unclear governance, and inconsistent standards. 

I needed to assess the system's current state, gather stakeholder feedback, and implement improvements to standards and processes to create accessible, interactive products that meet user needs. 

• Conducted cross-disciplinary stakeholder interviews to understand pain points and map user needs.

• Collaborated with engineers to address accessibility challenges in legacy components.

• Used affinity mapping to identify themes and priorities for our component and pattern library improvements.

• Facilitated collaborative design workshops to document existing processes and envision improved contribution models.

• Benchmarked against examples like the Government Digital Service for accessibility principles.

• Developed a new contribution model with clear documentation and minimum accessibility standards.

• Collaborated with the accessibility champions working group, ensuring they were happy with the guidance and that what was being communicated was consistent. 

• Engaged product teams throughout the process to gather user feedback.

• Established WCAG AA compliance as a mandatory requirement for all components, strengthening our approach to web accessibility.

• Transformed accessibility from an afterthought to a foundational principle in our design system.

• Reduced development time through better-documented, more robust components.

• Created a trusted resource used across the organisation.

• Expanded adoption to other divisions of the John Lewis Partnership.