Since 2015, HostGator has leveraged InVision’s full platform, including: Craft, Freehand, Design System Manager, Prototype, and Inspect.
Challenge
HostGator’s design team wanted to work more efficiently, improve collaboration with developers, and ultimately provide customers with more consistent experiences. Building a design system was the solution, but the team struggled to communicate its value to stakeholders, who were reluctant to allocate time and resources to the effort.
The team needed to devise a more creative, impactful way to get executive buy-in and move the project forward.
Solution
With InVision DSM, HostGator’s team built a minimum viable product—or MVP—which helped developers, executives, product managers, and other stakeholders better understand how the design system would work and its benefits to the business.
When we called it a design system, people didn’t get it. Once we made the MVP, it started clicking in people’s heads. When they saw what it was, it was a game changer.
Alexandria DeRosa
Creative Director, HostGator
Result
Building an MVP not only gave the design team an opportunity to take ownership of the design system, but it helped them gain support across the organization. Rather than just talk to stakeholders about what a design system could do, the team used the MVP to show them the value—walking people through the components, and creating excitement about the system’s progress.
HostGator's design system, built with InVision DSM.
HostGator was simultaneously executing a redesign and rebrand, so the design team used that project as a springboard to demonstrate how using a design system could transform the design process. They understood that it was more strategic to release something quickly with an MVP to gain executive buy-in, and then use it as a blueprint for future iterations.
When developers and designers work together, it forces designers to think more like devs, and devs to think more like designers. You understand each other, and your components work so much better than they did before.
Joe Stutzman
Art Director, HostGator
Without a shared language and workflow achieved through a design system, designers and developers waste time on rework and struggle to maintain consistency. HostGator's design system improved cross-functional workflows by connecting design and code so their team can focus on the big picture: creating great customer experiences.
You now have this proactive piece that you can bring to the table to convince leadership and other teams of the importance of your design system. When it comes down to collaboration, you can use the same MVP to bring others on board, as well.
Alexandria DeRosa
Creative Director, HostGator