Ryan Beckemeyer
Carvana Design Systems
Problem, Outcomes, Process, Conclusion
RoleSenior UI DesignerTeam2 DesignersTimeline9 MonthsYear2020
Problem

Multiple iterations of Carvana have shipped and UX patterns have become inconsistent and inefficient. How might designers help products mature into a consistent ecosystem with predictable user experiences?

Outcomes

Maturity in Carvana’s user experiences

I led the design team in expanding their resources to include interaction libraries and documentation alongside established style guides and brand documents.

Migration of tools to more efficient ecosystems

A major outcome of these efforts was a migration from Adobe and Sketch to Figma. This provided the studio with a simplified toolkit that could be shared across disciplines while opening deliveries up to natural collaboration and the efficiency that comes with proven interaction libraires.
Process
1

Auditing production environments and sifting through generations of shipments into the Carvana website.


There were no design systems or development libraries at Carvana in 2020. Every request was done ad hoc by repurposing artifacts from one place to another. I dug through years of design archives to develop primitives and modern components that responded well to the use of the brand and would develop the direction Carvana as a product was heading.


2

Flexible grid systems and templates


To avoid unnecessary variations in structure and the inefficiencies of pixel-perfection, I formalized a flexible grid system and introduced a more collaborative delivery environment that included stakeholders from product, engineering, and design. With the introduction of templates and the definition of proven common interactions, deployments were iterative and no longer beholden to UX processes.


A graphic illustration of the grid system across common device viewports.



Part of the development of design systems at Carvana required training on concepts like primitives, patterns, and an allowance for flexibility in the implementation of design. Strategic projects (see: Peer to Peer Marketplace) were used to incorporate these methods into deliverables. This approach allowed allowed us to create a strategic backlog for engineering.













3

Variants and themes to facilitate a new systems thinking


Variants on global patterns would be staged in team libraries. If a pattern didn’t exist, teams were free to create their own. Eventually, these could become candidates to graduate to the global system.








Conclusion

Design systems provide incredible efficiencies to teams experience growth and looking to enhance the UX of their web and native product experiences. Carvana is no exception to this and continues to maintain a rich design systems practice to this day.

A lesson I take away from this project is to find cross-functional partners early. There were hurdles that could have been avoided had we identified partners and stakeholders with more intention rather than expect the roll out of a system this rich to happen organically.