Building and documenting a design system
GOAL
Develop and document Blue Shield of California’s first design system.
My role
Organize and write the content guidelines by gathering and analyzing existing content rules scattered in various files, and translate them into a coherent and usable set of standards for the team.
side quest: content design guidelines
While documenting Cerulean, I led a parallel effort with Blue Shield’s content design team to develop our first-ever content design style guide.
These guidelines are part of Cerulean focused specifically on best practices, content design message patterns, and a word list.
where things didn’t go as planned
LinkedIn Learning needed to understand how its portfolio of emails could work together more effectively to drive north star metrics.
Problem
Blue Shield needed help documenting its first design system.
Context
When I joined Blue Shield, the UX team had begun to build its first-ever design system, Cerulean, a design system to serve UX and development teams on two different code bases.
Documentation for component design, interaction, and behavior was scattered in dozens of Figma files.
MY ROLE
As the dedicated content designer, I learned everything I could to gain a systemic understanding of how designers consumed our components and how developers needed them to work. Through collaboration, I brought clarity and consistency to the design system’s written documentation. I made sure every rule, guideline, and interaction was accurate, easy to understand, and aligned with our product standards.
METHOD
I started with an audit of existing documentation, which was spotty.
Methodically, one component at a time, I collaborated with the core team of UI designers and accessibility experts to resolve contradictions and fill in missing information.
SOLUTION
A comprehensive, easy-to-use resource in Zeroheight, a design system platform, that is now the definitive set of standards and single source of truth for Blue Shield, and empowers our team to work with speed and confidence.
TEAM
I worked with a core team of ten, which included visual designers, developers, and product managers.
Results
Cerulean’s standardized, reusable, and carefully documented components and patterns released in phases beginning in August 2025.