Supporting UBS in Establishing the Foundations of a Unified Design Language Across Digital Products
The client
The client needed the foundations of one design language across its brand and its digital products — a portfolio spread over web, desktop, mobile and native platforms, covering scopes as varied as investments, payments, mobile and banking.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
A product ecosystem this scattered does not converge on its own — design libraries and documentation had to be maintained in parallel while patterns improved across every platform.
Challenge 01Libraries in several places at once
Distributed design libraries and documentation had to be kept current while patterns were improved across web, desktop, mobile and native.
Challenge 02Decisions with many stakeholders
A workflow was needed that carried multiple stakeholders through feedback sessions, approvals and testing on every iteration.
Challenge 03Trust before scope
Taking on high-level initiatives meant first earning the team’s confidence on the straightforward design and delivery work.
What we did
Cooperative design teams under one management model
Netguru’s judgement was that cooperative design teams with centralised management would work better here than a handover model, with both sides in the decisions on every iteration.
New ones, meant to be reused
Patterns were improved across all the client’s platforms and new ones introduced with out-of-the-box use in mind, backed by the research each single product needed.
Workflow that stood up to scrutiny
Netguru consulted on and expanded the initial scope from an established workflow, with close collaboration initiatives improving the development teams’ own processes where it helped.
Libraries someone else can use
Solid design documentation, libraries and patterns were produced throughout, alongside hands-on delivery so launches went smoothly.
A dedicated team that took priorities on
A large, self-organised team drawn from several design disciplines, with project and product management in its toolset, took ownership of priorities and pushed the client’s long-term design goals along.
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What’s next