Design Systems
NCR Design System
Transforming Fragmented Interfaces into a Unified User Experience
Role
Industry
How do you unify hundreds of disparate products under a single design language?
That was the challenge I faced at NCR. As the company transitioned from hardware to software, our product suite lacked a cohesive design strategy across web, mobile, ATM, kiosk, self-checkout, and point-of-sale platforms.
This fragmentation led to:
Inconsistent user experiences, frustrating both customers and internal teams.
Inefficiencies in design and engineering, leading to redundant work.
A diluted brand identity, making it difficult to present a unified NCR experience.
To address these issues, I led the development of the NCR Design System—a scalable framework designed to streamline design, improve engineering efficiency, and create a cohesive brand identity across all products.
THE CHALLENGE: A FRAGMENTED ECOSYSTEM
Building a unified design system wasn’t just about creating reusable components; it was about solving deep-rooted organizational inefficiencies
Diverse Platforms
NCR’s products spanned multiple platforms, each with unique constraints.
Siloed Development
Teams worked in isolation, leading to inconsistent implementations.
Inconsistent User Experiences
A lack of design alignment resulted in frustrating and disjointed user journeys.
Reinvented UI Components
Without a unified system, every product team had to recreate basic components, increasing both design and development time.
My Approach: Building a Scalable Design System
To tackle these challenges, I spearheaded a comprehensive strategy that prioritized collaboration, scalability, and adoption.
Key Strategic Decisions
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Conducted Comprehensive Audits
Led an in-depth review of all NCR products to inventory existing components, identify inconsistencies, and eliminate redundancy.
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Benchmarked Against Industry Leaders
Analyzed leading design systems (Google Material, IBM Carbon, Salesforce Lightning) to establish best practices.
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Prioritized Core Components
Focused the first release on high-impact UI patterns that would provide immediate value across platforms.
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Developed a Low-Fidelity Prototype
Validated usability and technical feasibility before full-scale implementation.
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Iterated Rapidly
Launched an alpha version to gather feedback and refine the system before scaling.
Visualization of the NCR ecosystem the design system had to serve
Execution: A Cross-Functional Effort
The success of the NCR Design System hinged on seamless collaboration across multiple teams:
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Design Team
Established the visual language, UI components, and interaction patterns to unify experiences. Then built a scalable, component-based system ensuring consistency across platforms.
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Built a reusable component framework enabling multiple development teams to seamlessly adopt and extend the system for faster, consistent delivery.
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Integrated the system into roadmaps and workflows to ensure widespread adoption.
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I organized regular design critiques, usability testing sessions, and cross-team workshops to ensure adoption and refinement.
The Results: Transforming Product Development
The NCR Design System dramatically improved efficiency, consistency, and usability across all NCR products
Why this Matters
This case study highlights my ability to:
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Solve large-scale design and engineering challenges.
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Lead cross-functional teams to drive adoption.
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Create measurable business impact through design strategy.
The NCR Design System is now the backbone of NCR’s product ecosystem, ensuring that every customer, across every touchpoint, experiences a unified, intuitive, and efficient interaction.