From no shared source of truth to tokens, components, Storybook, and a Claude skill stakeholders can build with. The same system sits under every Cruise Critic project in this portfolio.
When I joined, Cruise Critic had no design system. The only shared asset was a set of colors in a library. An outside agency had been hired to build one and never produced usable work. I built the system from the ground up: about 50 pages in Figma, twenty component families, page and email templates, and a definition of done.
Decision Raw color scales feed semantic tokens named by role: background, card, focus, support, chips, icons, text, and border. Components reference the role, not the hex value.
Options Let components point at raw hex values.
Why Semantic tokens made dark mode possible without redrawing components. The 2026 palette restructure for light and dark modes slotted straight in.
Decision Moved the system onto Figma Variables when the feature launched.
Options Keep tokens in styles and documentation only.
Why Variables hold the tokens the components use, so a token change propagates instead of being re-drawn.
Decision Each brand color ships with WCAG AA contrast tables. Each interactive component has an accessibility spec: the element, its accessible name, and keyboard behavior.
Options Audit for accessibility at the end of each project.
Why A contrast page sets the rules — 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for large text and graphics — so every new page starts compliant.
Decision Built the components in Storybook with developers. Content teams use it to find and assemble components for the CMS.
Why One source of truth for tokens and states, and content teams stopped waiting on design for routine pages.
In 2026, I returned as design consultant for Claude AI integration. The team built a Claude UI skill that holds all of the system's components. Stakeholders use the skill to design and build their own pages — the system now works for people who don't open Figma at all.
The screens were unpopulated in Figma. I put them into Claude. Claude populated them and built a working prototype in under 10 minutes, using an AI design system inside Claude.
Size of the system
1 designer
covered search, booking, planning, and community work with consistent quality
20
component families, with tokens and states as one source of truth for engineering
50
pages of documented foundations, components, and templates in Figma
“Stephanie Thurber + Jamie Denke crushing the designs, as always. thank you!!! this looks great.”
I joined when the company had no design system and the agency work had produced nothing. I built the system from the ground up, and it became the base for the work that followed.
In 2026, the company hired another agency, and it took the AI work in a different direction. I had just rejoined, but I was the design expert on the system — I should have spoken up. Next time, I will raise concerns early, in writing, with the evidence I have.