Project: CHIP Design System

Julia Maehner

CHIP Design System with Content Guidelines

Goal:

Create a Design System to be able to scale our products and streamline product development. This includes:

Living style guide
Asset library
Content & brand guidelines

Team:

UX Design, product / development, content, SEO

Mission:

We want to build a scalable Design System as there are many new teams and editors working on CHIP.de. It will include not only the building blocks for the frontend design, but also comprehensive content guidelines. These guidelines will include copy for transparency and trust such as affiliate disclaimers. Also we‘re tackling microcopy in product-widgets and the editorial product reviews themselves.

By using the CHIP Design System as a template, we are also able to build similar systems for other brands.

Status quo:

The tech-platform CHIP already runs on a Living Style Guide, which helps us develop new products with greater ease and efficiency. However, as of now it‘s not able to scale to different platforms.

Process:

Compile & Document: We start by collecting the what and the „why“– our assets. What do we have on our brand? What‘s the brand‘s purpose? What kind of articles do we write? What elements do we use?
Audit & Analyze: Next step is figuring out the „How.“ What voice do we use? How do we talk to the users in which situation? Depending on the situation and the user’s state of mind, it‘s essential to address them in a certain way.
Test & Adapt: One by one, we‘re tackling the different components of our articles with user interviews, usability testing and A/B tests to improve our content and products.
Define & Design: In the end, we aim to form an ample, user-centric guide for our editors on how to write product reviews and guides. This will guide our authors, editors and content managers on how to help our users to find the right product or service.

We’re still in the process of finishing up the design system – hopefully by the end of the year. I can’t wait to share it with you once we’re finished.