Building a Scalable Design System at Axway

Faster builds, better consistency, stronger brand alignment
Introduction
Axway is a global B2B company with a complex website ecosystem supporting multiple products and regional audiences. I led web design across Axway's website properties, contributing to brand evolution while establishing consistent visual standards.

I also authored the design system guidelines from the ground up, creating a single source of truth to support scalable, cohesive design across the ecosystem.
Challenges
  • Slow turnaround of new pages, launches could take weeks or even months due to dependencies across copy, design, and development
  • Inconsistent builds due to fragmented UI patterns and undocumented design decisions
  • Mobile usability gaps, including a broken navigation menu and the absence of mobile designs from prior work
  • Lack of reusable, responsive components, resulting in bloated templates and duplicated code
  • Mounting design debt from ad hoc requests and one-off visual treatments
My Role
  • I led the creation of the design system. The system was structured around atomic design principles, with atoms, molecules, and organisms used to ensure modularity and scalability. I built a modular Figma component library introduced standardization and tokens, as well as maintained documentation in ZeroHeight to support cross-functional adoption.

    During my first two years at Axway, I was the sole marketing designer, independently leading brand evolution and establishing the visual direction that informed each new component. New components were built on decisions grounded in UX research, analytics, expertise feedback from the team, and competitive analysis.
Outcome
  • 71% faster page builds, made possible by reusable components and clear guidelines that eliminated last-minute coding needs and minimized low-impact, out-of-workflow requests
  • Improved consistency and usability across global web properties through standardized components, a redesigned navigation, and mobile fixes. Overhauling the mega menu to better align with user intent led to an +800% increase in engagement with key links
  • Systemized brand alignment, with guidelines that helped internal and external teams apply evolving brand elements accurately
  • Built a future-ready foundation using tokens, variants, and centralized documentation to support brand updates, new templates, and global scaling

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