Defining content guidelines for a design system
adyen
As Adyen expanded its products and services, maintaining consistency became increasingly difficult. We created a modular content system with reusable guidelines that helped teams build consistent experiences at scale.
Challenge
Without shared content standards, teams interpreted components differently, resulting in inconsistent labels, messaging, and interaction patterns. The challenge was to create scalable guidance that supported diverse product journeys without slowing delivery.
Team
Product design, engineering, product managers, marketing, and design system team.
Approach
Developed content standards
Defined reusable content standards for design system components, including usage guidance, writing principles, accessibility considerations, and examples.
Established scalable content patterns
Created scalable content patterns that standardised buttons, form fields, banners, modals, validation, and other core interface components.
In-built governance into the design system
Embedded content guidance directly into the design system, making content expertise accessible without relying on a content designer for every decision.
Iterated through team feedback
Refined the guidelines through continuous feedback, improving clarity, coverage, and adoption as the design system evolved.
Work
Outcome
The guidelines became a shared reference for product teams, improving consistency while creating a common language for collaboration across design, product, and engineering.
What I learned
Design systems aren’t just collections of components - they’re decision-making systems. I learned that good guidelines don’t prescribe every answer; they provide the principles that help teams make consistent decisions at scale.
