The role of design system engineering at Assembled

When I talk to candidates looking for a design role at Assembled, they’re often surprised to hear that we have a set of UX Engineers on the team who work on our design system and component library, Assemblage. UX Engineer is one of the roles I pushed for when I joined Assembled, and for good reason.

At a fast-growing company like ours, creating a scalable design system early on has helped us move quickly without sacrificing consistency, accessibility, or user experience. Think of it like building a strong foundation before you add the walls and roof — everything is just more stable that way.

But why does an early-stage company need UX Engineers focused on this? Let’s dig into the value it brings to our team, our product, and most importantly, our users.

Why design systems matter at early-stage companies

Design systems are no longer a luxury reserved for established software companies with a well-resourced team of designers and developers. Even for early-stage startups, they pay for themselves quickly by providing reusable building blocks — everything from buttons to complex forms — that save development time and improve consistency across the product.

By investing in a design system early, we give designers the freedom to focus on workflows and user journeys instead of UI basics. This speeds up the design process and keeps the experience consistent across the product.

Engineers benefit from the same reusable components, allowing them to prototype faster without starting from square one. For users, this translates into a more predictable and trustworthy experience.

The impact on designers, engineers, and users

At Assembled, our UX Engineers play a critical role in shaping our design system, ensuring that it not only serves the needs of designers and engineers but also creates consistent, user-friendly, highly accessible experiences.

For designers

Designers can focus more on solving user problems and less on tweaking typography or color. Instead of worrying about the minutiae of UI, they can direct their creativity toward improving the flow of features and experiences. The presence of a system also encourages designers to consider how each feature fits into the larger picture. This translates to a more streamlined design process and greater consistency over time, especially as the team scales.

For engineers

Our design system allows engineers to develop features faster. Need a table or a form? No need to bother a designer — grab it from the component library, and follow the recommended patterns. A well-architected component library can steer engineers towards more usable outcomes, for example, by requiring headings and labels, or via baked-in form validation standards. This efficiency means engineers spend less time reinventing the wheel and more time on the unique challenges of each feature.

For users

Ultimately, users win. A consistent look and feel across the product reduces the cognitive load and makes interactions more intuitive. But it’s not just about aesthetics — design systems also bake in accessibility features. At Assembled, we focus on making sure our components work for everyone, whether that’s someone with a visual impairment, a new parent juggling a baby while using the app, or someone who’s just had their eyes dilated at the optometrist. Accessibility isn’t just a feature; it’s a standard we hold ourselves to because it improves usability for everyone.

The tensions of building a design system in a startup

Of course, working on a design system isn’t without its challenges. At a fast-paced company like Assembled, the question is often, "How much should we invest in this now, and how do we balance it with the need to ship features?"

There are constant trade-offs:

• How much time should we spend refactoring old code to fit into the new system?
• When should consistency trump a perfect but isolated solution?
• When should we build things from scratch, and when should we rely on off-the-shelf components?

These are the types of questions we wrestle with every day — and honestly, the answers aren’t static. What was right for us when we were a 20-person team may not be right as we grow and scale. The key is keeping our focus on what delivers the most value to users, while also making sure the system serves the needs of designers and engineers.

Join our team

We’re constantly learning and iterating on our design system as we grow, and that’s why we’re looking for another UX Engineer to join our team. If you love debating design questions, building components, and thinking deeply about user impact and business success, we’d love to chat. Let’s build something great together.

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