Frederick Williams
UX and Product Design Leadership
Kaiser-Permanente-Symbol 1.png

Kaiser Permanente

 Kaiser Permenente

Overview

Role: Principal Product Designer
Duration: 2 years
Platform: Web, Mobile, Enterprise Tools
Focus: Design System, Enterprise UX Standardization
Tools: Figma, FigJam

Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit healthcare organizations in the U.S., serving over 12 million members. I led UX initiatives to unify fragmented digital experiences across platforms and products, improve onboarding journeys, and build a scalable design system to increase efficiency, consistency, and accessibility across teams.

The Challenge

Kaiser Permanente’s digital ecosystem was highly fragmented:

  • No unified design system

  • Redundant components across platforms and vendors

  • Inconsistent UX across touchpoints, impacting trust and usability

  • Lack of standardization slowed collaboration and delivery

These gaps in cohesion and governance led to usability issues, development inefficiencies, and an inconsistent brand experience for both patients and internal users.


Project Goals

Build a centralized, scalable design system for KP’s enterprise and consumer platforms

  1. Increase design consistency and reduce redundant work across teams

  2. Improve accessibility compliance through systematic guidelines and tokens

  3. Streamline collaboration between design, product, and engineering

  4. Reduce production time through reusable patterns and documentation


My Role & Responsibilities

As Principal UX Designer, I drove efforts to audit the digital ecosystem, design reusable patterns, and implement system-wide standards:

  • Led UX audits across 30+ digital experiences

  • Partnered with product and engineering teams to prioritize reusable interface elements

  • Developed atomic-based components and templates in Figma

  • Defined visual language systems and accessibility guidelines

  • Created centralized documentation and onboarding playbooks for adoption


Team Collaboration

  • Design: Collaborated with cross-functional product design teams across multiple business units

  • Development: Coordinated with frontend teams to translate tokens and components into code

  • Accessibility: Worked alongside compliance specialists to ensure WCAG 2.1 AA adherence

  • Vendors: Unified UI across externally built experiences to ensure consistency at scale


UX Process & Key Solutions

1. UX Audit & Component Inventory

  • Conducted heuristic and usability audits across 30+ products

  • Mapped interface inconsistencies and redundant components

  • Identified opportunities to consolidate patterns into reusable modules

2. Design System Architecture (Atomic Model)

  • Built a modular system based on atomic design principles

  • Created foundational styles: color tokens, typography, spacing, grids

  • Designed molecules (e.g., form fields), organisms (e.g., cards, navigation), and templates

3. Governance & Documentation

  • Developed Figma libraries with usage instructions and interaction guidelines

  • Created a shared documentation hub with governance rules, onboarding kits, and accessibility checklists

  • Hosted workshops and training sessions to drive adoption across teams.


Outcomes & Measurable Impact

Design System Adoption

  • Reached 90% adoption among core design teams within 9 months

  • Reduced component redundancy by 40%

  • Enabled faster onboarding for new designers and engineers

Efficiency Gains

  • Design production time dropped by 50% due to reusable elements

  • Developer handoff improved, with 60% less back-and-forth

  • Better scalability for future redesigns and product launches

User Experience Improvements

  • Consistent UI increased user trust across the platform

  • Accessibility scores improved through baked-in contrast, hierarchy, and legibility standards

  • Fewer design-related support tickets across digital tools


A modular system

Focused on the maternity and diabetic journeys provided the affordance for flexibility in this new language and could scale to accommodate future health journeys.

 

Summary

This effort laid the foundation for scalable, efficient, and accessible design across Kaiser Permanente’s digital footprint. By centralizing design operations and establishing shared standards, I helped transform a fragmented ecosystem into a cohesive, systematized experience that empowers teams and end users.

The Vessel Design System was released being used by many designers who continued to build upon the visual language. The 8 Experience Group Design Teams are now able to be more efficient and move much faster market with confidence.