Northwind Design System
Scalable component library for enterprise SaaS
Role
Design Systems Lead
Timeline
5 months
Tools
Figma, Storybook, Zeroheight
Team
1 designer, 3 engineers
Challenge
The Problem
Northwind's product team shipped inconsistent UIs across 12 modules, slowing development and creating a disjointed user experience.
Discovery
Research & Insights
Interface audit across 12 modules found 47 unique button styles and 9 spacing scales. Engineering interviews confirmed handoff friction and duplicated CSS as top pain points.
Defined design tokens, built 40+ components with documentation, and partnered with engineering on Storybook integration and adoption workshops.
Deliverables
Key Screens & Flows
Selected frames from the final experience — presented in context, not as loose screenshots.
nashrahfahim.com
nashrahfahim.com
nashrahfahim.com
Evolution
Before & After
Before
One-off components, conflicting tokens, and weeks lost reconciling design-dev mismatches.
After
Shared tokens, documented components in Storybook, and a single source of truth for product UI.
Impact
Outcome
Reduced design-to-dev time by 35%. Achieved 90% component adoption across teams within 3 months of launch.
35%
Faster design-to-dev
90%
Component adoption
40+
Documented components