Lightning Design System v2

Led the accessibility and responsive redesign of 40+ components in Salesforce's Lightning Design System, bringing the entire library to WCAG 2.1 AA compliance and reducing customer accessibility bug reports by 70%.

SalesforceUI/UX DesignerEnterprise SaaS9 months

Situation

Salesforce's Lightning Design System (SLDS) powered UIs for 150k+ developers building on the platform. A 2017 accessibility audit found 60% of interactive components failed WCAG 2.1 AA standards, creating legal exposure and limiting adoption in government and healthcare verticals.

Task

Audit, redesign, and document 40+ SLDS components for WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, responsive breakpoints, and dark mode support — while preserving backward compatibility for existing implementations.

Action

Led a cross-functional team of 3 designers and 4 engineers. Created an accessibility scoring rubric used to prioritize components by severity. Redesigned each component with updated color tokens, keyboard navigation specs, and ARIA patterns. Collaborated with 5 enterprise customers as design partners to validate changes before release.

Result

All 40 components achieved WCAG 2.1 AA. Customer accessibility bug reports fell 70% within 2 quarters. SLDS adoption grew 22% as the library became qualifying for US federal procurement requirements. The token-based color system shipped as part of SLDS 2.20.

Key Metrics

SLDS Adoption Growth

+22%

Components Redesigned

40+

WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance

40% → 100%

Accessibility Bug Reports

-70%