I was hired at Amazon to co-lead the creation and documentation of the Amazon Prime Design System, as well as design new Prime upsell screens for several Amazon devices. My primary contributions to the Prime Design System included defining the system architecture, component structures and features, variable / token planning, and template layouts. I also co-created the annotation and spec formats, and assisted in the creation of a full-scale documentation site.

The Prime sector consists of nearly a dozen CX teams that own the multitude of Prime design “modules” that my team created components and layouts for. The project was fast-paced and high-pressure, with many restrictions and guidelines. The production process consisted of working closely with the many CX teams to bring to life Figma components, layouts, and prototypes, as well as the discovery and correction of A11Y issues throughout. Collaboration with adjacent design system teams, namely Amazon Rio and Amazon AUI, as well as engineering, ensured UI compliance and code parity.

Amazon Prime is an extremely high-profile product that services over 200M users, and is considered Amazon’s flagship product. As such, this project generated a higher level of interest and direct involvement from stakeholders. Routine review cycles with L6 – L8 leadership occurred multiple times per week, which necessitated unusually fast iteration. In the end, we successfully created a comprehensive, yet streamlined, A11Y-compliant system that met all Amazon UI guidelines, and significantly sped up design processes, while creating improved consistency across Amazon’s many Prime surfaces. Additionally, updated Prime upsell screens were created with a fresh, modern aesthetic and updated legal adherence.

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