Design Systems

Our award-winning design systems are a competitive advantage for our clients. It’s seen some drastic refinements in recent years. Designing libraries of components (not page templates) has opened up new opportunities. The result is some big changes in the way we work.

It’s a collaborative design process that engages stakeholders of all seniority. This gives us insight into what makes your brand authentic. We will refine and document how you should present yourself online.

Designers from SMILE create frameworks of components that meet organisational goals. We translate the jargon and show you how to stay WCAG 2.x/ADA/Section 508 compliant.

Changing the way we design with evolving software

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Over the years, the design team at SMILE have used multiple design programmes in a bid to deliver the highest quality output for our clients. When I began at SMILE in 2017, we briefly used Figma for design work but…

Identifying Site and Menu Architecture Using GatherContent

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At SMILE, we use GatherContent to manage our own website's copy and media content. We have learned that the ability to easily arrange and view our content in this way has highlighted how this system can be further used as a powerful tool to identify or improve site map and menu architecture. Here, we share some of our key learnings.

User insight driving design choices

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Since 2014 SMILE have been working with the University of Birmingham, a Russell Group institution, on delivering their online event platform. The platform’s longevity is a testament to its success. In its first iteration, the platform began life as a…