Nextdoor

Making design systems accessible to everyone

The Challenge

Nextdoor had recently completed a redesign and they were looking to update their design system (“Blocks”) with the new brand direction. At the same time, they wanted to increase internal adoption for Blocks among their design and engineering teams in order to create a more consistent product experience while speeding up implementation.

List of services

User research
Documentation
Stakeholder alignment

our Strategy/Approach

By embedding directly within the team, we built relationships through surveys, 1:1’s and user research to create an effective strategy for team alignment across both the design and engineering teams.

“ Working with Pixelfat was a lifesaver! Their quality of work was fantastic and they quickly established an honest and collaborative partnership.”

— Simon O'Shea, Design Systems Lead, Nextdoor

The solution

Streamlined workflow defining how to use and add to the design system without creating bottlenecks or adding design debt.
Created clear and simple documentation that increased understanding and promoted a shared vocabulary among cross-functional team members
Executed new processes (such as online tutorials) to rapidly onboard new designers, especially in a remote environment.

“Pixelfat hit the ground running and helped accelerate how our team worked together. It’s helped us gain exposure at Nextdoor, where people across the organization are now factoring our design system into their everyday discussions.”

-Simon O’Shea, Design Systems Lead, Nextdoor

“When the Blocks project started I was skeptical, because if we didn’t actually use it, then it was going to be a problem. But we’ve actually started to get a lot of adoption and [it’s been] really helpful.”

— Engineer, Nextdoor