Digital product design

Product design here is the bridge between an idea and a build that ships, not a Figma file that sits on a shelf. Most engagements run in two-week sprints, either alongside an existing product team or as a standalone phase before engineering starts. The output is a clickable prototype, a design system the build team can actually use, and a documented decision log so the choices survive the handoff.

Design systems that map to the build

Design systems are built in Figma with real component variants, real typography tokens and real spacing scales, not just a colour palette and good intentions. The system maps to the front-end framework the engineering team will ship in, Tailwind tokens for Next.js builds, Liquid CSS scope for Shopify, native UI primitives for mobile, so the translation from design to code is deterministic rather than an interpretation exercise.

Accessibility built in, not audited later

Accessibility is a design decision, not a compliance pass at the end. We design to WCAG AA from the first screen: colour contrast that holds up, focus states that exist, target sizes that work on a phone, and a content structure that makes sense to a screen reader. Catching it in design is far cheaper than retrofitting it after the build, and it makes the product better for everyone, not only users with a diagnosed need.

Research without theatre

Usability testing runs on Maze where the question is sharp enough to deserve a structured study. For everything else, moderated sessions with five users are still the fastest way to learn what doesn't work. The output isn't a 40-page report, it's a prioritised list of design decisions the team can act on this sprint.

From Figma to a living system

A design system is only useful if it survives contact with engineering. We export design tokens (colour, type, spacing) in a form the front-end can consume directly, and where the team maintains a component library we document it in Storybook so design and code share one source of truth. The aim is that "matches the design" becomes verifiable, not a matter of opinion in a review.

Hand-off the engineering team will actually use

Design hand-off is a written spec, named components, named tokens and named states, not a Figma link to "the latest version". The build team should know on day one which screens are out of scope, which states need engineering thought, and where the design has deliberately left room for product judgment.