Jason Pamental In previous design system and platform projects for the states of Georgia and Rhode Island, color and layout have been the primary means of differentiation between sites—with typography being a consistent throughline that provides a stable foundation of familiarity for the citizens of those states.
Presenter Jason Pamental, a principal designer at Chewy.com, says: “Creating a design system that can work in multiple color palettes and light modes was enough of a challenge in itself! But at Chewy, our needs are a bit different. We’re a $9B company with public-facing sites, native applications, and enterprise tools as well.
“For our design system to really shine,” Pamental says, “we have to allow for the typographic system to flex as well. Native mobile applications have some unique challenges in how to best leverage their capabilities, and sometimes that means the typographic scale and even the typefaces themselves have to be able to change. Add to that the data-dense display requirements for enterprise applications, a content-heavy pet health site with a separate look, and the brand of Chewy itself—and it’s obvious that a one-size-fits-all approach to the typographic system just can’t work.”
Pamental will discuss how the Chewy team has built that necessary flex into the design system, allowing for the benefits of standardized design components to live in harmony with differing color and typography libraries underneath. While not without its challenges, this approach has meant a massive reduction in design and engineering timelines without compromising on providing the best typography for each use case.