NCR's Data Visualization Design System
I helped start a Data Visualization Design System at NCR to standardize how charts and graphs were used across banking, retail, and hospitality products. This involved creating a shared visual language, implementing design tokens, and making data visualizations scalable, flexible, and consistent. My goal was to build a system that supported both design and development—saving time and reducing inconsistency across teams.
TEAM
WORK DONE
Research, Product Auditing, Information Architecture, Design Token Implementation, Documentation and guidelines
⚠️ Challenge
Synthesis overload: Each team had different needs, chart preferences, and user contexts
Scalability: Visualizations had to function across responsive breakpoints, especially for mobile interactions like long-press, zoom, or swipe
Alignment with business goals: It wasn’t just about what teams wanted—we had to prioritize charts that delivered impact
Balancing customization vs. standardization: We needed flexibility without losing cohesion
Cross-team coordination: Getting buy-in from multiple departments with competing needs required diplomacy and clarity
🛠️ Approach
Competitive and comparative research
Studied data viz systems from Google’s Looker and other industry tools
Assessed how existing products handled customization, accessibility, and responsiveness
Identified what came “out of the box” and what we’d need to build ourselves
Scaled using tokens + responsive behaviors
Built components using design tokens for spacing, color, typography, and states
Documented responsive chart behavior across desktop and mobile
Planned for enhanced mobile interactions like long press, zoom, and tooltips
Audited existing products across LOBs
Collected real visualizations from projects in banking, retail, and hospitality
Interviewed project leads to understand missing needs and chart pain points
Created a usage matrix to track which charts were needed across teams
Prioritized core visualizations first
Focused initial efforts on common charts: bar, line, pie, donut, scatter
Deferred more complex charts (e.g., Sankey, radar, treemaps) to future roadmap
Allowed product teams to submit requests for advanced visualizations
🚀 Impact
✅ Reduced design time – Designers spent 15% less time searching for or recreating data visualizations.
✅ Improved consistency – Standardized charts and graphs across LOBs, decreasing design inconsistencies by 80%.
✅ Faster development cycles – Engineers could quickly implement visualization
✅ Scalable and customizable – Teams could modify charts using design tokens while maintaining brand alignment.
✅ Stronger brand identity – Unified data visualizations helped establish a more recognizable and cohesive product suite.
✅ Streamlined design-developer collaboration – Reduced back-and-forth between teams, improving efficiency and communication.