How I designed a scalable internal platform at FedPoint using a USWDS-Driven design system.

At FedPoint, I served as the primary contributor for creating a scalable design system primarily used for our internal business tools. Partnering with Andrew Zarbo and James Roth, we focused on 2 goals:

• Build a design-dev product development process that can scale using the design system, and

• Support business teams managing complex client data with clearer, better tools

For this project, I read the federal government’s design system documentation (designsystem.digital.gov) and used it as the core foundation. USWDS guided my setup of tokens, component patterns, documentation standards, and accessibility best practices.

Using this foundation, I was designing and documenting the initial components on Figma, publishing them, and simultaneously applying them directly to the internal tool’s wires.

These same components were adopted by the development team to develop the tool based on the wires, allowing design and engineering to work in parallel while weekly user interviews and testing were ongoing. This alignment led to faster product delivery, smoother collaboration, and a consistent experience across all internal products.