I saw a city's public transit app that felt like five different teams built it

I was in Chicago last month and tried to use their Ventra app to check bus times. The buttons, colors, and even the spacing felt different on every screen, like there was no shared plan. Has anyone else had to fix a design system after a project has already grown like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy_clark17d ago

Yeah, getting everyone in a room to list the most used things is exactly it. That first shared list is so painful but so needed. I've been there, and it feels like you're just putting out fires for months. You have to be really strict about using the new pieces, even when people push back for speed. It's a long road back from that kind of mess.

eric_morgan5917d ago

Three years ago I would have said letting teams build their own buttons was fine for speed. Then I watched a project with 47 shades of blue grind to a halt over font sizes. Wendy Clark is right, you have to be strict. Letting one team use a "quick" custom table for their dashboard just makes ten more fires to put out later. The short cut always makes the mess bigger.

keith_henderson17d ago

Oh man, that's the worst. You have to get everyone in a room and make a list of the single most used things, like buttons and text styles. Then you build those first and force everyone to use them for any new work, even if it's just a quick fix. It's the only way to stop the bleeding.