Spectrum iOS
Building Adobe’s design language for iOS
I co-led the design of the first version of Adobe’s iOS design
system, working alongside another designer and our engineering
partners. Together, we helped translate Spectrum to iOS through new
foundations, components, guidance, and team practices—while making
sure the system felt at home on the platform.
My role
As design co-lead, I helped shape the system’s direction, prioritize
what we built, and bring the work together into a coherent first
release. Some areas were directly designed by me; in others,
including typography, I contributed through critique, testing, and
system-level decisions.
How we worked
The system was a deeply collaborative effort. My co-lead and I
divided ownership across different areas while reviewing important
decisions together. We partnered closely with engineering and
product teams to test the system against real use cases and evolve
it through feedback.
My contributions
- Co-defined the vision, principles, and roadmap for Spectrum on iOS
- Designed and evolved selected foundations, components, and interaction patterns
- Contributed critique and system-level guidance across work owned by others
- Helped reconcile Adobe’s design language with native iOS conventions
- Partnered with engineering to consider implementation constraints and behavior
- Established rituals for critique, alignment, contribution, and adoption
- Helped prepare the system and its story for the V1 launch
The central challenge
We weren’t simply translating an existing library to a smaller
screen. Together, we had to determine which parts of Spectrum should
remain consistent, which should adapt to native iOS conventions,
and where the platform required a new solution.
Reflection
Co-leading the work taught me that a design system’s coherence does
not come from one person designing every piece. It comes from
creating the principles, collaboration practices, and shared
standards that allow many contributions to feel like one system.