01 · introduction

A designer who reads the source, writes the tokens, and makes it accessible

I’m Damon Tolhurst — a product designer working at the seam of design systems, accessibility, and the code that holds them together. 11 years in enterprise B2B software.

Location
Michigan / remote
Role
Product designer, design system builder

"He's very precise, calm, considered, accurate — which is all the traits you need when trying to figure out how to make a design system work for such a plethora of products that we have."
- My design director

selected work

02 · selected work

Four projects, one through-line: things that scale and stay legible.

i.

Acquia GEL - a design system from 0 to 1

We had two design systems: one was inaccessible, one was inflexible. A new, unified system was needed for consistent and accessible design across our product suite. I led the design side, working closely with engineering, to craft a full system of components, tokens, and documentation. We focused on consistency between Figma and code as well as usability by AI.

  • Consistent look and feel across products
  • Faster design and implementation
  • AA+ contrast across all products

ii.

Two design systems - made harmonious

I worked to update and bring two designs sytems into alignment. This included: refactoring Figma components to improve structure and responsiveness, matching variables to implemented CSS, adding missing components, and filling in documentation. I've also acted as an advocate across the company for broader awareness and adoption of the design systems.

  • Closer match between Figma and code
  • New governance process
  • User-friendly Figma components

iii.

Acquia Cloud Platform MEO - saving million$ in annual revenue

We have numerous customers requiring FedRAMP compliance, and our old system was set to fall out of compliance. I led the design initiative to modify our legacy platform in a way that would allow customers to migrate and maintain FedRAMP compliance. In addition to a whole new architecture, this process created entirely new features and workflows for users, powering scalable website management.

I was initially added as a support designer for this project, and was later moved to lead when the previous lead left the company.

  • Preserved millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue
  • Enabled managing hundreds of sites in one go
  • Enabled sunsetting an outdated product

iv.

Content Hub - making filtering usable

The design for filtering was limited in function and unintuitive to use. Starting with exploratory designs from another designer who left, I worked with Product to define requirements, conduct testing, and deliver an all-new design for filtering that solved user and business needs.

  • Redesigned a one-off UI to use the design system
  • Added clarity to the filtering process
  • Designed filter feature to meet accessibility standards

03 · practice

Three threads, braided.

a.

Design systems

Tokens before components. Governance before either. I treat a system as a real product. 

// tokens/color.json
{
  "color": {
    "ink":    "#1B1B20",
    "paper":  "#F2EDE4",
    "accent": "#C8421E"
  }
}

b.

Accessibility

WCAG is the floor, not the ceiling. Accessibility is about people and making software they can use. Accessibility failures are bugs. 

<button
  type="submit"
  aria-describedby="err-email"
  data-loading="false">
  Send
</button>

c.

Code-savvy design

I won’t replace your front-end team, but I’ll happily open a PR. Comfortable working with engineers in code and offering solutions. 

export function Field({ label, error }) {
  return (
    <label className="field">
      <span>{label}</span>
      <input aria-invalid={!!error} />
    </label>
  );
}

05 · get in touch

Looking to level up
your design system?

Email me