Case Study — Design Systems
Betancur DS
How I helped turn a fragmented, low-adoption design system into an org-wide standard at UnitedHealthcare through documentation, accessibility, and engineering partnership.
Role
UX Engineer
Company
UnitedHealthcare
Timeline
2022 – 2026
Tools
Figma, React, Storybook
The problem
When I joined UnitedHealthcare, the design system existed in name only. Individual product teams had built their own component libraries, their own patterns, their own conventions with no shared source of truth.
The same UI problems were being solved six different ways across six different teams. Design-to-engineering handoffs were inconsistent and slow. Accessibility was treated as a retrofit if it was treated at all. And engineers were not using the system because it was not built with them in mind.
The core issue was not the components. It was that the system had no foundation anyone could trust or build on.
Where I started
I started by building components, getting hands-on with what existed and understanding where the gaps were. The problems were not technical, they were structural. No contribution process, no usable documentation, no clear path for an engineer from needing a component to using the right one.
Once that was clear, my focus shifted from building components to building the system around them. The things that would make adoption possible and sustainable.
What I did
Documentation
I researched how leading design systems document their work and built documentation covering component usage, token architecture, and contribution guidelines, making the system self-service so engineers did not need to ask a designer every time they needed a component.
Accessibility
I worked closely with the accessibility team to lead a WCAG 2.1 AA compliance initiative across the full component library. Every component got documented keyboard behavior, ARIA patterns, and contrast requirements.
Engineering handoff
I helped establish a formal handoff process with clear specs, token references, and interaction states documented before anything was handed off. What got designed was what got built.
Org-wide adoption
The system grew from something one team used to something adopted across the organization. Documentation and process made adoption a natural outcome rather than a mandate.
What I learned
A design system is not a component library. The work that makes a system scale is invisible. The documentation, the processes, the relationships with engineers and accessibility specialists who make it real.
The most important skill I developed was not designing components. It was making the system easy for other people to use, contribute to, and trust.