Audi of America
Somo Global
Design Director & Lead Designer
Design direction
UX/UI design
Interaction design
Workshops
Prototyping
User testing
One of the things I'm most proud of is going from pitch and ideation to design and creation of the Audi Design system (ADK). As part of a truly collaborative and agile cross-functional team, I worked alongside Audi of America to transform and innovate their digital experience to develop a global, market-leading solution all built on the aforementioned global Design System that puts the customer at the heart of the experience.
After being part of the pitch team to secure Audi of America (AoA) as a client, we were to evaluate, design and rebuild their digital strategy and its products to deliver a leding global digital experience.
As soon as we started to dig under the hood of their current eco system I discovered a really disconnected design langage and files systems. I quickly recognised the benefits a design system could have to the global Audi portfolio, and to ensure the product teams were designing and developing consistently, efficiently and collaboratively, we introduced a global Design System for Audi simply named ADS.
We started with the focus on AoA and after I developed the design system, alongside working on their core brand site, we opened it up to stakeholders at Audi AG and its associated agencies so we could centralise the design system and ensure a wider group benefited from its goals as well as forming a small team to work on documentation and that the components worked for global regions.
It’s now the single source of truth for Audi product teams in all markets, with everything from Getting Started guides, Core Components, and process documentation.
The Audi Design System was revolutionary to the company and helped lay the foundations for everything to be built on since its rollout.
While the design system began with myself building out the atomic component library, accelerated hack weeks and workshops tookplace for a week each month in AOA's Washington DC office. Our focus was a core part of the site each session and even extended to their current apps and MyAudi portal.
We identified key areas of improvement for AoA and implemented a user-led and iterative approach with continual design evolutions and frequent PoCs to test complex technical integrations.
This enabled us to build out the design system and implement our recommendations alongside site development for the entire digital landscape, across tens of projects – from design, content management, infrastructure. Even new ventures that have (and will continue to) ensure efficiencies for Audi staff, whilst delivering a truly market-leading experiences for customers. This body of work spanned many years and was truly a body of work that I'm proud of. As one of the top 10 automotive brands in the world, Audi is one of the brands in my career that will always stand out. It was a joy working with a team of people inside the company that truly wanted to change things for the better and push things forward.
