iSHARES (by BlackRock)

Design system, ux writing, style guide, tone of voice

Digital

Agency: Ustwo

THE BRIEF:

iShares wanted a design system—a central store of tools and guidelines—to make creating digital experiences simple and consistent.

It’s a living style guide housing a fine-tuned selection of design foundations, components (e.g. a banner, button, headline), patterns, and guidelines to help users create, for example, a new web page, in a quick and streamlined way.

THE WORK:

iShares design system

I worked with an international team of designers, developers, and product teams to create the beta version of the design system. This meant:

• Leading on all things copy as the sole writer on the project

• Research—lots of it

• Developing and refining 'how-to' sections for each foundation and component, including a guide for users (iShares and BlackRock staff and related agencies) on how to write for each component, e.g. a button, headline, or caption

• Creating and owning the entire 'writing for iShares' section of the design system. This meant deciding on the rules we would adopt for our style guide and working up examples

• UX writing focus on certain components, such as forms, error messages, tooltips

• Making sure the tone was right for the design system—giving it the authority of a financial institution with a friendly, helpful voice

• Advocating for accessibility and inclusive content design

• Working with Sketch, Abstract, Air Table, Invision etc.