Designing, documenting and establishing a design system.
Are design systems really necessary?
When I first stepped into Nebraska Medicine’s digital ecosystem, it felt like wandering through a hospital basement, too many signs pointing in different directions, doors leading to dead ends, and a handful of outdated maps on the wall. Across websites and apps, we had too many variables, inconsistent typefaces, clunky, outdated pages, and old design artifacts still floating around. Each project felt like reinventing the wheel, and patients, families, providers were the ones paying the price with confusion.
Starting small and utilizing what exists
I knew we couldn’t trash everything and start fresh. So I started small, aligning with Nebraska Medicine’s existing brand guidelines. Roboto became our font of choice, not glamorous, but dependable, readable, and scalable across platforms. I introduced an 8-pt grid system to bring order where there had been chaos. Suddenly, layouts snapped into place. Even before introducing new colors or icons, the system began to breathe and look more structured.
The right kind of perfect icons
I’ll admit, I’d never built an icon set before. But sometimes the best way to learn is to dive in. Together with the graphic designer, we established a standard: 24x24px icons with a 2px line stroke. Simple, but perfect for consistency. Soon we had an icon library of 300+ icons that felt cohesive and infinitely reusable.
Building onto the Nebraska red
Nebraska’s bold brand red (#AD122A) was powerful, but limiting. Too much and it overwhelming. Too little and the brand disappeared. I dove into color theory and built a palette that extended that red into complementary shades and accessible variations. As a result a robust color system was born that passed accessibility tests and felt distinctly Nebraska Medicine, without boxing us in.
Testing and iterating in the wild
Systems can look perfect in Figma but the real test comes when they meet the world. We started rolling out components on login pages, symptom checkers, and patient quizzes. Every decision was thoughtful. Buttons that scaled gracefully on mobile, forms that felt intuitive, pages that finally looked like they belonged to the same family. The feedback was clear as patients and staff could feel the difference.
A system as good as its documentation
Of course, a design system is only useful if people can actually use it. So I worked hand-in-hand with copywriters and engineers to build documentation. We set up guidelines in Figma, connected them with Storybook for developers, and made sure no one had to reinvent components ever again. For the first time, our teams were speaking the same language and building quicker without wasted time in the sprints.
Closing thoughts…
When I first started, I wanted to make sure there was room for feedback and iterations. What began as a patchwork clean-up became a foundation for Nebraska Medicine’s future. The design system has streamlined workflows and brought clarity to patients navigating our digital spaces. But like healthcare itself, it’s never “done.” The system continues to grow and adapt as the healthcare system evolves with the changing needs of the patients and providers.