OnStar Design System

Overview

The OnStar Design System was created to establish a unified foundation of design tokens, UI components, and interaction patterns for OnStar’s growing ecosystem of digital products. Designed to support both web and mobile experiences, the system aimed to provide a scalable framework that product teams could use to create consistent and accessible interfaces.

Working closely with our agency partner and internal teams, we defined core foundations, built a component library, and documented reusable patterns intended to streamline future product development across the OnStar platform.

Role
Lead Product Designer

Project Duration
Jun - Aug 2025

Scope
Workshop Facilitation, Design Systems, Component Libraries, Advanced Components, Design Tokens

The problem

OnStar’s digital products were being designed and built without a shared system of UI patterns or components. As a result, inconsistent interfaces began appearing in production, leading to frequent one-off design work and custom development that slowed both design and engineering teams.

At the same time, recently updated brand guidelines from our agency partner focused primarily on web experiences and did not address the growing suite of OnStar mobile applications, leaving teams without clear guidance for cross-platform design.

Goals

Extend the OnStar brand
to mobile experiences

Expand the updated brand guidelines to support mobile experiences while maintaining alignment with the core OnStar visual identity.

Design an accessible
and inclusive system

Create an accessible and intuitive system that supports a broad range of users, including a large portion of OnStar Guardian customers over the age of 50, ensuring readability, clarity, and ease of interaction.

Establish consistent
UI patterns

Define reusable components and interaction patterns to eliminate one-off designs and reduce inconsistencies across products.

Improve design–engineering collaboration

Provide developers with a clear and consistent set of components, tokens, and documentation to streamline handoff and accelerate development.

System foundations