- Fare Pasifika Design System
Several years ago I was assigned the role of Researcher on a seven-person design team for an annual program that unites volunteer designers with local non-profits on a three-month mission. Our client was Fare Pasifika (Maori for Pacific House), an organization that provides native language classes to locals of Pacific Islander descent.
I designed a series of posters using statements taken directly from research interviews, but I didn't pursue the idea further. I had imagined the posters as part of an ad campaign and determined that mass transit vehicles and stations would be an effective ad placement strategy.
While looking for projects to demonstrate design systems, I realized that the many Seattle Metro ad placement options are analagous to the different screen sizes of interactive devices. That led me to redesign the posters in Figma.
After studying the finer points of components, nested components, component sets, variants, and the 'slash' naming convention, I had to manually edit all the layer and style names in the file I had created. It was a painful process, but working with the file felt like magic after I set it up correctly.
The full component set is here:
The design principles for this system don't require a lot of details about implementation, but it is valuable for stakeholders to document the philosophical and emotional underpinnings of the design and the process for their development. Regarding design system documentation, Figma.com says: "It's easy to fall into the trap thinking you need an elaborate style guide, documentation website, or additional tools ..., but the reality is, many small teams simply don't have the time or resources ... keep it simple and avoid complicating it."
- Outcome
I understand this is not an interactive system and its component set doesn't include controls with multiple states and variants. Also, as a print design system it doesn't require constant maintenance and updates. However, simply creating the initial variations and then working back and forth to optimize the designs can quickly become unmanageable without the aid of a well designed set of components.