/CASE STUDY
/OVERRVIEW
BACKGROUND
Providence's digital products had historically been built by clinical and operational teams with little UX background. The result was a fragmented ecosystem: design decisions varied widely across pages, components were duplicated without standards, and there was no centralized source of truth. For patients trying to find a provider or schedule an appointment, the inconsistency created real friction. In healthcare, that friction doesn't just frustrate — it erodes trust in a system people are depending on.
THECHALLENGE
The core challenge wasn't just creating a component library — it was building something an organization unfamiliar with design systems would actually adopt. Teams across Providence needed to understand not just what the system was, but why it mattered and how to use it. That meant designing for two audiences simultaneously: patients navigating complex healthcare journeys, and internal builders who had never worked within a shared design framework. Balancing scalability with accessibility, and documentation with adoption, was the central design problem throughout.
ROLE&RESPONSIBILITIES
As Lead UX Designer, I owned the full arc of the project — from audit and strategy through design, documentation, and rollout support. I conducted the initial UX and accessibility audit, defined token architecture and component standards, wrote all documentation, and led hands-on workshops with cross-functional teams to drive adoption. I collaborated closely with three front-end engineers during implementation, partnered with a UX Manager for organizational alignment, and worked with an analytics specialist post-launch to track impact. My role extended well beyond the Figma library — I was also responsible for shifting how Providence's teams thought about design itself.
PROCESS
I started with a comprehensive audit of ProvidenceHealth.org — reviewing every public-facing page for layout inconsistencies, accessibility failures, and duplicate components. Findings were logged, prioritized by severity, and shared with engineering before the system was even built. From there, I inventoried all UI elements, studied design systems at IBM, Material Design, and the NHS for benchmarking, and defined the system's architecture: an 8pt grid, a unified token system for color, typography, and spacing, and WCAG 2.1 AA compliance baked into every component.
Once built, I led adoption workshops and individual co-creation sessions to give teams not just the tools, but the context to use them correctly. Rollout was phased — starting with high-traffic templates like the homepage, appointment booking, and provider directories — to minimize disruption and capture early feedback.
IMPACT
The system became the default foundation for all new digital initiatives at Providence. Component reuse across new builds increased by 54%, reducing duplicated design and development work. Reported UI bugs dropped 40% as consistency replaced guesswork. Teams shipped new features 78% faster based on internal development cycle tracking. Patient-facing task success — finding a provider, scheduling an appointment — improved 65% through usability testing and session analysis. Accessibility issue reports fell by more than 40% as WCAG-compliant components replaced ad hoc solutions. Cross-functional adoption grew steadily, with product managers and engineers citing the system as a key tool for reducing friction across teams.