Establishing GfK's first global design system, and leading the UI direction for Newron - the company's flagship B2B market-intelligence SaaS.
GfK provides global research powered by data science and AI. Newron is the company's flagship B2B market-intelligence SaaS, used by analysts and decision-makers across consumer goods, finance and retail.
I was brought in to establish GfK's first global design system, then asked to lead the UI output across two parallel Newron workstreams.
Before the full system existed, the team needed a practical way to align UI output immediately. I created a quick-reference guide covering grids, type hierarchy, colour, responsive behaviour, mobile-first principles and accessibility - giving the team a shared baseline while the formal library was being built.
Foundations - quick-fix pass on Newron headers
Alongside the interim guide, I ran a comprehensive audit and taxonomy of GfK's existing and legacy applications, benchmarked against best-practice references. The output was a set of A3 artboards - one per pattern family - creating a clear view of what existed, what was inconsistent, and where new system decisions were needed and could be prioritised.
Pattern audit and taxonomy - A3 artboards
Buttons, controllers, forms, tables and data visualisation patterns were built as Sketch symbols and rolled out across three formal library releases. The team could contribute components in working drafts, but each element had to meet a defined best-practice bar before entering the released library.
Sketch library · data display
"From a team shipping without a system to a Sketch library on its third release - and a Design System recognised across the business as the foundation for future GfK products."
Project note
I left GfK with its first global design system in place, a Sketch library on its third release, and a design team working with clearer standards, stronger production habits and shared UI principles.