Case Study
Heart Design System
From grassroots effort to enterprise-scale design infrastructure. The story of how I built and scaled Heart across web, iOS, and Android platforms at Southwest Airlines—and what I learned along the way.
Read time: ~12 minutes
Four chapters tell the story
Chapter 1
The Long Game
Origin Story
I've known design systems were the answer since before most people were calling them that.
Chapter 2
Staying Alive
Pandemic
When the brand director signed off, things started moving. Then the pandemic hit.
Chapter 3
The Moment It Clicked
Gift Card POC
Southwest's gift card experience worked. But underneath, it was still wearing Leapfrog.
Chapter 4
No Straight Lines
Scaling
Scaling a design system is hard. Scaling one without a dedicated team is a different kind of hard.