Designing
NEXUS
for Scale
How we unified 40+ products, 200+ designers and 3 fragmented libraries into one cohesive system at AERON.
Role
Lead Product Designer, Design Systems
Timeline
8 months — 2023-2024
Team
8 Designers, 6 Engineers, PM
Scope
Web, Desktop, Design Ops
Overview
AERON had a classic enterprise problem: hyper-growth without guardrails. After 4 acquisitions, we had 12 product teams shipping with 3 different UI kits, inconsistent tokens, and no shared language between design and engineering.
400+
Screens audited
3
Legacy libraries
12
Product teams
The Problem — Before NEXUS
Before
After — NEXUS
Every team had their own definition of “primary blue”. We found 47 shades of blue in production. Accessibility was failing, and engineering handoff took days.
Discovery & Audit
- Audited Figma libraries, codebases, and Storybooks across AERON
- Interviewed 24 designers & 18 engineers — mapped pain points
- Created inventory: Buttons (32 variants), Inputs (19), Colors (147 unique)
Design Principles
Flexible, not rigid
Instead of locking AERON into one style, NEXUS provides fluid foundations that adapt to product identity.
Inclusive by default
WCAG AA is the floor. Every token, component is tested for contrast, keyboard, and screen reader.
Code as source of truth
Figma mirrors GitHub. Tokens are synced via Style Dictionary, not manual updates.
Educate, don't enforce
Embedded docs, usage, do/don't directly in the workflow.
System Architecture
COLOR.PRIMARY
#0A84FF • click to copy
SPACE.BASE
8px • click to copy
RADIUS
12px
Iconography Unification
Inspired by AERON's hardware legacy, we unified 20,000+ icons into 420 core glyphs with 3 weights. Flexible system: consistent appearance but adjustable stroke for product needs.
Component Library
Button
React • FigmaInput
React • FigmaCard
React • FigmaModal
React • FigmaTable
React • FigmaTabs
React • FigmaGovernance & Adoption
We spent months meeting teams to address 3 fears: losing creative control, who owns the system, and scope limits. We launched with education, not mandates.
Impact & Metrics
60%
Faster design to prototype
45%
Reduction in dev time
92%
Adoption across AERON products in 6 months
“NEXUS isn’t about uniformity. It’s about giving teams a shared language so they can move faster, together.”
— Learnings from building NEXUS at AERON