Design Strategy • Design System | 3 min read
Supercharged Design Delivery
How a Design System Redefined Efficiency
Client
Alshaya Group – Dubai
Role
Principal Experience Designer
Overview
When a leading retail empire faced the monumental challenge of refreshing 15 distinct lifestyle brands simultaneously across multiple platforms and languages, they needed more than just a design update—they needed a revolution in their approach. Our team developed a variable-driven design system that transformed a resource-intensive, manual process into a streamlined powerhouse of efficiency.
The implementation of this innovative design system delivered quantifiable business impact while enhancing creative quality:
• 7x faster design delivery (5 weeks → 5 days per brand)
• 88% decrease in time-to-market
• $200K annual cost savings in design production
• Unified brand experience across platforms and touchpoints
• Enhanced collaboration between teams
This case study demonstrates how systematic design thinking can dramatically transform operational efficiency while simultaneously elevating creative output and brand consistency.
The Challenge
Scaling Design Across a Brand Empire
• 15 distinct lifestyle brands requiring simultaneous digital refresh
• Multiple platforms (desktop and mobile)
• Dual language support (English and Arabic)
Existing Workflow Problems
• Duplicated Efforts
– Designers recreating similar components across multiple brand systems
– Updates required repetitive implementation across 15 separate systems
• Language Adaptation Struggles
– Extensive manual adjustments for right-to-left reading patterns
– Different typography requirements and spacing challenges
• Inconsistent Templates
– No standardized templates covering all use cases
– Essential scenarios sometimes overlooked
• Resource Intensive Process
– Each brand refresh required two designers for five weeks
– Unsustainable approach when multiplied across the portfolio
The Solution
A Variable-Driven Design System
Working closely with the team, we developed a radical approach to the design system that leveraged Figma variables and created a modular architecture. This new system allowed for unprecedented flexibility and automation in the design process.
By introducing a core component library that worked alongside brand-specific elements, we established a foundation that could be quickly adapted across all brands, devices, and languages. The streamlined templates ensured complete coverage of all use cases while maintaining perfect alignment across the brand portfolio.
The results were transformative – what once required two designers and five weeks could now be accomplished by a single designer in just five days.
Want to dive deeper into the process?
I’d be happy to walk you through our variable-driven approach and template standardization that achieved 7 times faster design deliveries.
The Transformation in Action: Minutes, Not Days
To understand the dramatic impact of this new system, consider the process of creating a landing page:
Before
• 60-90 minutes Create desktop version using English components
• 30-45 minutes Manually adapt for mobile devices
• 60-90 minutes Recreate for Arabic desktop, manually adjusting all details including text, flow, and layout
• 30-45 minutes Adapt Arabic version for mobile
• Total time: 3-4 hours per landing page
After
• 15-20 minutes Create desktop version using English components
• 1-2 minutes Duplicate page and switch layout variable to mobile
• 1-2 minutes Duplicate original and switch language variable to Arabic
• 1-2 minutes Duplicate Arabic version and switch layout to mobile
• Total time: 20-30 minutes per landing page
Demonstrating in real-time the reduction in workflow steps and time:
The Impact
Redefining What’s Possible
The implementation of our variable-driven design system created dramatic, measurable improvements:
Quantitative Wins
7x Faster Design Delivery
Reduced design time drastically from 5 weeks to just 5 days per brand
88% Decrease in Time to Market
Accelerated the entire product development lifecycle, including design, development and testing
$200K Annual Cost Savings
Significant reduction in resources, justified the ROI for developing the design system
Qualitative Wins
Enhanced Quality
Improved consistency and quality across brands, devices, and languages
Unified Brand Experience
Consistent implementation of guidelines for deliverables across all touchpoints
Enhanced Collaboration
Clearer and effective communication between design and development teams
Scalable Foundation
Easy incorporation of new brands and product lines to cater to market needs
The system’s modular design ensured that enhancements to core components benefited all brands, fostering a continuous improvement cycle while preserving each brand’s distinct visual identity.
From Efficiency to Strategic Innovation
This project established a new paradigm for managing design complexity in multi-brand ecosystems. By leveraging Figma variables as the foundation of our approach, we created a system that transcended the traditional tradeoff between efficiency and brand integrity. What began as a solution to technical inefficiencies evolved into a strategic asset that redefined collaboration between teams. The standardized components and automated adaptations freed designers from repetitive production tasks, allowing them to focus on solving deeper user experience challenges. The principles established—modular architecture, variable-driven components, and intelligent templates—provide a blueprint for design systems that can scale across brands, devices, and languages without sacrificing quality or uniqueness, demonstrating how thoughtful design infrastructure creates exponential value that extends far beyond immediate efficiency gains to support innovation for years to come.
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