Scaling Through Structure:
From Components to Collaboration

Scaling Through Structure:
From Components to Collaboration

As the first design hire at Pflegewächter, I led the Design System execution, focusing on bringing consistency, improving accessibility and streamlining hand-off processes between Design & Engineering.

I worked closely with a team on a new processes and laid the foundations of the design system.

Context

When I joined Pflegewächter, I inherited a product built by a small engineering team utilizing basic MUI components. The platform faced significant accessibility compliance gaps and UI inconsistencies, creating significant barriers to scaling and future growth.

Goal

The goal was to speed up our transition from solution to implementation in design and development and create consistent user experiences while maintaining rapid iteration cycles.

Impact

  • Reduced design inconsistencies and technical debt by implementing reusable components.

  • Enabled our team to work in parallel by implementing clear contribution and review processes.

Timeline

Sep 2024 - Mar 2025

My Role

Product Designer

Industry

LegalTech

Before & After

The Foundation Challenge: Rebuilding While in Flight

My first weeks revealed critical inefficiencies: engineers recreating similar components across pages, inconsistent design decisions confusing users, and a growing disconnect between Figma designs and production code.

With the tech stack being reworked, we needed more than just components – we needed a systematic approach that would align design with development, enable rapid iteration, and ensure consistency at scale.

Building the Design Core

We approached the challenge by creating a comprehensive UI library from scratch, designed to unify our design and development workflows. The foundation was built on 3 core Figma libraries:

  1. Foundations Library

    • Core design tokens: typography, colors, spacing, grids

    • Enabled consistent design decisions across teams

  1. Semantic system for consistent implementation

    • Semantic naming conventions

    • Design tokens for consistent implementation

    • Bridging design decisions with code

  1. Components Library

    • Reusable UI elements and patterns

    • Built for modularity and scale

Source of Inspiration

This insight from a Dive Club podcast episode with Henry Modisett helped me find clarity in approaching this challenge.

We didn't know what the product was going to be… we didn't know how it was going to work… but it probably needed buttons, a type system, a color system, etc.”

— Henry Modisett

The result

The new design system transformed our workflow and delivered measurable results:

  • Created a single source of truth for design and development teams

  • Reduced implementation time for UI changes

  • Established a scalable foundation for product growth

  • Improved team collaboration through structured documentation

What I’d Improve Next Time

Three key areas for enhancement: implementing a more detailed token system from the start, involving developers earlier in component architecture, and incorporating user testing for UI variations before finalization.

Mykola Korzh

© 2025 Mykola Korzh

Mykola Korzh

© 2025 Mykola Korzh