Creating a design system for digital products

Inmarsat is a leading satellite communications company, providing global connectivity products and services to business customers in a wide range of industries—including maritime, logistics and aviation.

The business needed a way to maintain brand consistency across its current and future digital product experiences, and to speed up design and development processes.

This had to be consistent for designers and developers, both internal and for their partners, and be resilient to changing requirements and the development of new products.

Inmarsat engaged Elsewhen to develop a cohesive design system—a toolkit of guidelines, methods, assets and resources to enable design consistency.

We started with a tight focus, developing a framework to empower a single team. We then grew this out for use with multiple teams across the wider organisation.

Finally, this was opened out beyond internal use to be accessible for Inmarsat’s partners.

At the end of the engagement, we showed Inmarsat how the design system can continue to evolve with the needs of the organisation.

The new design system emerged from the real-world needs of Inmarsat teams. It provides time-saving features and supports better, faster workflows.

The system has helped to unify all of Inmarsat’s products into a set of consistent and familiar experiences—and can now be used by them to build out a clearly integrated suite of products.

Not only is Inmarsat’s design system helping product teams become more collaborative and create more consistent products—it also helps them reduce their time to market for new products and offerings, saving money and effort overall.

New digital processes, services and collaboration tools help your people be more empowered and engaged.

An expert product designer combines the skills of both user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Understanding the objectives and desired functionalities for your product, they will research the needs and pain points of your customers or users, and find ways to address them.

Mapping out user journeys and information architecture, they determine how people will engage with your product.

Your designer will then create and test high-fidelity interactive prototypes with users to obtain their feedback. In this way, they shorten feedback loops and can iterate quickly and incrementally. Presenting even a small set of screen designs can make it easier for non-technical stakeholders to imagine a real working product—and provide valuable feedback.

This prototyping is also a great vehicle for building positive momentum and buy-in across your organisation.

Expert product designers work closely with engineering colleagues in integrated teams to enable end-to-end product delivery capabilities. They understand the fundamental

principles and requirements of both design and engineering— so will never propose solutions that cannot be built.

They will help your organisation create and grow a high- quality design system.

This comprehensive tool-set of design standards, assets and resources empowers your organisation to manage design efficiently and consistently, with reusable components and clear guidelines.

An experienced product designer understands that, when it comes to providing great experiences, the demands on organisations are much higher today than ever before.

The designer knows that customers and users expect high- quality, delightful experiences—whether they are doing business with you or working for you.

For this reason, the product designer will work to help your customers enjoy seamless multi-channel engagements with you that deliver on your brand promise.

Inspire your thinking with a digital story on upgrading digital experience for a multi-brand global business.