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Alight Worklife Design System

Cutting Late-Stage Defects with Design System Guardrails

BenAdmin • Design Systems • A11y • 6 months

Role: Director, Product DesignTeam: 4 Designers • 3 FE Engineers • Dedicated Agile SquadScope: Alight Worklife DS • CI guardrails • A11y automation
↓ 50% defects↓ 95% a11y issuesCI + DS automation

Led the transformation from legacy systems to a governed, automated Design System (AWLDS), cutting late-stage defects 50% and reducing a11y issues by 95%.

View AWLDSArchitecture DiagramSee process
Problem
Legacy systems (UPoint and Thrive) lacked documentation, a11y checks, and DS governance—causing late-stage defects and costly rework in a regulated benefits platform.
Outcome
Established Alight Worklife DS (AWLDS) with Figma→Storybook→Zeroheight pipelines, CI guardrails, and a11y automation—improving reliability and accelerating safe delivery.

Strategic Highlights

Leadership-level framing in three pillars

Systems Governance
Built the first unified AWLDS with versioning, migration guides, and CI gates across two legacy platforms.
A11y & Quality Automation
Implemented automated a11y checks via GitHub Actions and Storybook tests; 95% reduction in issues on migrated pages.
Agile Transformation
Shifted from waterfall to a dedicated sprint cadence; established ceremonies, Jira workflows, and defect tracking dashboards.

Results at a Glance

Quick, credible metrics with context

47 % ↓
Late-Stage Defects
Quarterly average reduction after AWLDS adoption
90 % ↓
A11y Issues
On migrated pages compared to legacy DS
47 % ↑
Adoption
Components transitioned to AWLDS

What I Built

Screens and decision patterns

Drift Dashboard
Slack Drift Detection DashboardOpen ↗

Automated Slack reports surfaced a11y and component drift in real time.

AWLDS Inspector
DS Conformance InspectorOpen ↗

Inspects html for AWLDS conformance.

Intake Process
Intake ProcessOpen ↗

A structured workflow to capture, prioritize, and manage requests for new components or updates.

UI Request
Component Request FormOpen ↗

A standardized document used to request new UI elements.

Definition of Done
Definition of DoneOpen ↗

Criteria that a product increment must meet for the team to consider it complete and ready for customers.

Insights & Impact

Why this mattered beyond the prototype

Operational Quality
Automated DS guardrails and CI checks halved defect rates without slowing release cadence (biweekly).
Behavioral Change
Replacing manual audits with AI-based drift detection shifted teams from reactive QA to proactive prevention.
Cross-Discipline Alignment
Close PM collaboration ensured DS backlog aligned with upcoming feature work for predictability.

Resources

Proof links for reviewers

AWLDS SiteArchitecture Diagram

Process (Optional Deep Dive)

Design Sprint → Findings → Changes → Next Experiments

Goal (Design System Modernization):

  • Consolidate legacy DS assets into one source of truth.
  • Enforce CI + accessibility guardrails to prevent regressions.
  • Reduce rework and defect rates across product teams.
  • Align DS roadmap with the product backlog for predictable delivery.

Outcome: ↓ rework, ↓ a11y rollbacks, ↑ DS adoption, faster release confidence.