Cerner's Design System

Description

In 2015, the User Experience organization set out to establish a holistic system of guidelines and rules that would feed into the creation of a common component library and framework that could be used across Cerner's 300+ solutions. Affectionately known as Cerner Design Standards. Cerner Design Standards would then go on to feed the One Cerner Style (OCS) initiative.

Today our library has grown to over 125 published Design Standards with additional 150 accessibility guidelines.

Role

From contributor to owner, I was chosen for my attention to detail and ability to think at a system level in order to bring together high-quality, well researched deliverables.

As I took over the Design System, I was responsible for:

Strategizing and implementing hardened processes to ensure research backing were built into every aspect of the system.
Prioritizing work based on usage, component dependencies, and product needs.
Further relationships with development stakeholders to ensure design proposals and usability needs were accounted for.
Creation of design deliverables including design standards and implementation wireframes.
Review research, design, and development output.
Train and evangelize the importance of using Design Standards regardless of platform.
Establish backchannels for feedback and better integration across the organization.
Reported quarterly to IP executives on the progress and compliance.

Approach

We treat our Design Standards as living documentation that will grow and change over time as technology evolves, usability findings are uncovered, and of course as business requirements and regulations change.

Our approach to researching and documenting Design Standards is to first see what the industry is doing, layer in our Cerner business requirements and industry regulations, mitigate situations that could introduce patient safety risks, and of course test and validate the unknown. Design Standards have been growing stronger and more well defined over the past 6 years and we are teasing out the nuances around those “it depends” situations by further producing design decisions to support designers across all our experiences and user groups.

Regulatory considerations:

Accessibility (ADA Section 508, WCAG 2.0 and 2.1)
CE Marking (BS EN 62366:2008, IEC 62366-1)
Meaningful Use

Process

Audit: From initial component creation to enhancements, we start by auditing what is existing within our products today to understand past precedents and gaps within functionality. We then conduct industry audits to gain further understanding of common patterns and interactions our users will be familiar with in their daily lives.
Vet: We gather requirements from our product managers and owners to understand and vet out the different needs across Cerner to drive buy-in and increase adoption.
Define: We streamline requirements and tease out the nuance between the different functional needs, establishing types and variations when appropriate. Once known, we work to define interaction and functional behaviors, accessibility considerations, and responsive variations.
Feedback & Review: Work is reviewed internally as well as with product and engineer stakeholders to ensure key requirements are not overlooked.
Test & Refine: Whether through the definition phase or once released, we seek every opportunity to learn more about the usability of our Design System. When there are findings that could impact the definition of Design Standard component, we evaluate and enhance when appropriate.
Establish Metrics: Adherence to our Design System is incorporated and evangelized throughout Cerner. We track compliance both internally within UX through design evaluations as well as externally with our development stakeholders who own our component library.

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