Amazon Prime Design System

Role: UX Designer – Design Systems
Platform: Web & App | Design System | Accessibility | Figma | Cross-Team Collaboration

Overview

I joined Amazon to help lead the creation of the first unified design system for Amazon Prime—a high-impact initiative that redefined how design is scaled across one of Amazon’s most visible products.

This system now powers experiences for over 200 million global Prime members, streamlining design for nearly a dozen cross-functional teams and ensuring consistency, accessibility, and efficiency across the board.

The Challenge

Before the system, Prime’s UI was fragmented across teams, with inconsistent patterns, duplicated components, and variable user experiences.

Our mission was to:

Redesign existing Prime layouts
Build a reusable, scalable design system
Support multiple CX teams with different requirements
Ensure full accessibility and compliance with Amazon’s UI standards

This had to be done at speed, under significant constraints, and with a high degree of visibility from leadership.

My Role & Responsibilities

I was responsible for both design system architecture and day-to-day collaboration with CX and engineering teams. My contributions included:

System Foundations: Defined component structures, layout templates, token strategy, and naming conventions.
Figma Component Library: Helped build a robust, flexible library with an emphasis on accessibility and modularity.
Documentation & Specs: Co-created a comprehensive internal documentation site and helped define the annotation/spec process for designers.
Accessibility (A11Y): Proactively identified and resolved accessibility gaps during design—baking compliance into the system from the start.
Cross-Team Collaboration: Worked directly with Prime CX teams, as well as partner system teams (Amazon Rio, AUI), to ensure consistency and alignment across all surfaces.
Stakeholder Reviews: Participated in frequent reviews with design leadership, incorporating feedback quickly and iteratively.

Building the System

We developed a component-first approach:

Designed flexible components that could adapt to the needs of multiple Prime experiences
Created system-wide tokens to manage spacing, typography, color
Built layout templates to accelerate product design
Ensured all components met accessibility requirements

Collaboration & Scaling

Partnered with CX teams to integrate system components into their flows
Conducted deep dives with engineering teams to ensure code parity
Maintained alignment with other Amazon-wide systems to avoid duplication
Designed for scale, knowing this system would be used across dozens of surfaces

Impact

Reduced design debt and duplication across Prime
Delivered a system that significantly increased team velocity and consistency
Ensured accessible, high-quality design across all user experiences
Enabled product teams to focus on innovation, not reinventing UI patterns
Supported one of Amazon’s most critical offerings with a scalable, future-proof design foundation

Key Takeaways

A successful design system is as much about people and process as it is about components
Building for scale means planning for flexibility, not just uniformity
Close collaboration between design, engineering, and accessibility teams is non-negotiable
Great systems empower teams—they don’t constrain them

System Architecture

Foundations

These include system-wide tokens to manage color, typography, styling and spacing.

Baseline components

These are the atoms of the Amazon Prime Design System. They include buttons, inputs, text fields, etc.

Complex components

These are the molecules and organisms used throughout the Prime UX experience, including banners, cards, navigation, etc. They are built with flexibility to cover a wide variety of use cases.

Templates and Layouts

Page-level designs that define the underlying layout and content hierarchy without specific final content.

Prime Member Page

Prime Upsell Marketing

Annotations and Documentation

Defined the annotation/spec process for designers.