Bank of Ireland

One group. Three branches. Zero shared language.

Role

Lead · System · Governance

Challenge

3 branches. Zero shared language.

Scope

UX · DS · Governance · C-level

Impact

3 platforms. 6 months. 1 system.

01 · Situation

Three teams. No shared infrastructure.

Three branches, three product teams, no shared design infrastructure. Inconsistent journeys, legacy DS, internal tools out of sync with customer surfaces. The brief was not to redesign three products, it was to build the conditions for coherent experience without constant supervision.

✕ 3 branches

Fragmented journeys, no shared baseline

✕ Disconnected

Internal tooling out of sync with customer surfaces

✕ Legacy DS

Non-responsive, non-accessible, WCAG AA gap

✕ No governance

No shared structure to prevent re-fragmentation

The real challenge

02 · Approach

Three workstreams. One output.

No long discovery. No final delivery. Each workstream fed the others in real time from day one.

Craft UX/UI

Tension

Three surfaces. No shared production rhythm.

Three surfaces designed by separate teams. No shared handoff, no common baseline.

Call

Ship in parallel. Feed the DS immediately.

Every validated screen fed the DS immediately. Specs via Figma Dev Mode. Decisions in ADR.

Result

Production in motion, not in batches.

Weekly reviews with BoI devs kept the loop tight. DS grew with the product, not after it.

Design System

Tension

A legacy base that could not be discarded.

Existing DS had partial adoption. Rebuilding from scratch would reset trust and delay delivery.

Call

Extend. Don't replace. Token architecture first.

Extend, don't replace. 3-level token structure as non-negotiable foundation. Full variant coverage.

Result

A living system, not a delivered artifact.

Documentation in Confluence, updated in real time. Every decision in ADR. System evolved without losing intent.

Governance

Tension

Three branches. No arbitration structure.

Without a shared decision forum, each branch would evolve the system independently.

Call

Put governance in rooms, not docs.

Monthly Design Council, one rep per branch. Presence at Copil and Codir to intercept upstream.

Result

Coherence maintained without central authority.

Fragmentation intercepted at decision level. C-levels understood coherence as a business cost.

Take away

03 · Outcomes

What held.

Not the number of components. Whether the system survives after the engagement ends.

Before→After

3 disconnected design histories

→

1 shared design language

No arbitration structure

→

Design Council, monthly and binding

Legacy DS, no token logic

→

3-level token architecture

Fragmented journeys per branch

→

Coherent experience across all surfaces

Design decisions made locally

→

Governance embedded at C-level

branches aligned

under a single design language

delivery

6 mo

3 platforms in parallel

governance

Design Council

permanent structure installed

system extension

AI patterns

first conversational components

04 · Takeaways

Three things this confirmed.

Fragmentation is intercepted at decision level, not patched at component level.

A system built in motion is more durable than one delivered at the end.

Coherence has to be translated into business language to survive.

Closing

The real deliverable was not a component library.

It was a decision infrastructure. The structures, rituals and documented rationale that allow teams to build consistently without a central authority to enforce it.

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