# Fix the system, not the designers

Heaps · Design system – case study by Seemant Shekhar. https://www.seemant.design/work/fix-the-system-not-the-designers

Every new project had its own local components page. Designers weren’t breaking the system; the system was breaking them. I rebuilt it and changed how it’s run.

- **Role**: Head of Design
- **Team**: My design team, PM, engineering
- **Scope**: Figma library and an icon font
- **Status**: Live and governed
- **Areas of influence**: Component variants; Usage documentation; Ownership and change process; Icon font
- **Highlights**: An owner for every area; Changes need evidence first; Icon font is the engineering standard

## 01. What we found

**Detached copies everywhere.**

In an audit, every new project had its own local components page. Designers detached global components and reused their own copies.

## 02. Why it happened

**The system didn’t cover real use cases.**

Button had a single variant. Anyone who needed warning, error, success, small or large had to break it and make their own.

BEFORE
Button copy copy copy 
One variant, plus detached copies
AFTER
Primary S Primary M Primary L Warning Error Success 
type × size × state

## 03. The rebuild

**Complete variant sets, documented.**

I rebuilt the components with full variant sets, type by size by state, and wrote documentation on when and how to use each one.

## 04. Governance

**So it doesn’t drift again.**

Each area has an owner; one designer owns the icon library, so every new icon is requested, made and published through them. Any change needs evidence: a designer shows why, the team discusses, then we decide.

## 05. Beyond Figma

**Icons as a font.**

I proposed moving the portal’s icons from PNG and SVG to an icon font, took it through the PM to engineering, and it’s now the standard. I still maintain it.

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Next case study: [One platform, built from zero](https://www.seemant.design/work/one-platform-built-from-zero)