Design System for Distributed Marketing Teams

With dozens of colleges, campuses, and departments creating their own digital content, Northeastern’s web presence had grown increasingly fragmented. As Director of Digital Experience, I led the development of a new design system built to unify the university’s digital expression, improve accessibility, and empower internal teams to work faster and more consistently. This system now underpins everything from research sites to admissions pages, and is helping reshape how Northeastern show up online.

Company: Northeastern University

Role: Director, Digital Experience

Timeline: Six months

Tools Used: Figma

Problem

Northeastern’s decentralized marketing model led to inconsistent web design and experiences across its 13 campuses, 10 colleges, and myriad administrative units. Each team had their own way of building pages, choosing colors, structuring content, and interpreting accessibility guidelines. The result: brand dilution, UX debt, and significant inefficiencies across the digital ecosystem.

Solution

We created a centralized design system tailored to Northeastern’s needs. It is flexible enough for individual sites, but grounded in a shared visual and accessibility framework. I partnered with marketing, development, and accessibility leads to define design tokens, component libraries, and editorial patterns. Our goal wasn’t just visual alignment; it was empowering distributed teams to build great experiences without reinventing the wheel.

Execution

  • Led cross-functional workshops with design, content, and development teams to align on needs and constraints

  • Developed a modular system of components (headers, content blocks, CTAs, forms, etc.) used across hundreds of sites

  • Integrated accessibility from the start, in partnership with in-house experts and EBSCO-based accessibility learnings

  • Documented and launched the system in Figma, with guidance on usage, brand application, and tone

  • Piloted the system on high-profile initiatives including the Research, AI, and Experiential Learning sites

Results

  • Reduced design and development time for new sites by 40%

  • Improved brand consistency across dozens of active sites (and counting)

  • Increased accessibility scores across core properties

  • Created a seamless user experience for site visitors, with consistent navigation, typography, and visual language across colleges, programs, and research centers

  • Helped establish a governance model and design review process across campus teams

  • Supported scalable growth as new campus initiatives and global programs launched

Related Visuals

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