Wrapped: Our year in design + code
A quick, mobile-friendly recap of 2025. Built with NYS DS components and tokens.
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Team spotlight
Jesse Gardner
Jesse Gardner
Director
“I think we’re doing some of the best design system work in government right now, and I couldn’t be prouder of this team. We didn’t just build a design system, we built it in public: a reference site, a video series, articles, office hours, an open-source repo. That’s not easy, even though the team made it look like it.”
What I’m proud of:
- We cultivated a spirit of collaboration, with so many other teams contributing to the system to make it what it is;
- We worked incredibly hard but had a lot of fun doing it (chef hats, bootleg t-shirts, silly 404 pages);
- We proved that state government can ship world-class design system work;
- We created the building blocks, next we’re focused on creating a library of shared patterns.
Team spotlight
Eric Steinborn
Eric Steinborn
Design System Lead
“A year is not a long time to create a robust and scalable design system from scratch. Luckily we had a great team and great partners like Experience Design and OGS Digital Services teams which helped us move the project forward and deliver 34 releases in the first year.”
What I’m proud of:
- Winning the “Best Application Serving the Public” award.
- The complex DevOps test, build, and deploy process that supports our Design System and it’s reference website.
- Reducing the NPM package size by ~47%
- Focusing on design and development collaboration.
Team spotlight
Leo Vogel
Leo Vogel
Lead UX Designer
“2025 was a memorable and highly productive year in which we accomplished a tremendous amount as a team. I’m grateful for the opportunities I had to meet with other design systems professionals in Stockholm, London, and San Francisco. The NYS Design System is just getting started. The impact we’re going to have will be immense.”
What I’m proud of:
- Helped the project reach finalist stage for a zeroheight innovation design system award
- Published NYS DS as a Figma Community file for external use
- Co-presented at FormFest 2025 with Jesse Gardner
- Wrote a guest article in Dan Mall’s design system newsletter about Fidelity Modes
- Met with multiple organizations to begin building a national standard for a Quick Exit component
- Released our initial video series
Team spotlight
Kristin Sorrentino
Kristin Sorrentino
UX Designer
“Creating a design system from scratch with a small team has been both challenging and deeply rewarding. The experience pushed me to grow as a UX designer and sharpen my skills. Each component required thoughtful consideration and intentional design choices. Seeing others recognize its value and save time by adopting the system has been incredibly fulfilling.”
What I’m proud of:
- Working on a team that prioritizes accessibility and provides the time and resources to continuously learn and grow in this area
- Building a robust button component with multiple states, variants, and sizes
- Creating well-organized Figma guidance across key categories such as components, theming, and variables in our Get Started section
- Completing numerous SPIKE tickets through in-depth research and competitive analysis
- Designing and contributing to complex components, including a Date Picker and Table, and seeing them come to life in code
- Developing clear, visual guidance for our Screen Template to help teams quickly get started using the design system
- Designed a 404 page that helps users quickly get back on track, turning confusion into a clear, on-brand experience that also adds personality to our site.
Team spotlight
Robert Chen
Robert Chen
Software Developer
“After so much effort spent preparing the reference site, demo repos, and building trust with early users, seeing real adoption of the Design System has been one of the most rewarding moments this year.”
What I’m proud of:
- Finalized the reference site code preview/copy.
- Organizing the React demo; publishing a live page and deployment process
- Released A11y-compliant components that fill gaps in other design systems, adding complex functionality now used across NYSDS (e.g., nys-tooltip, nys-fileinput).
- Code connect setup which bridges the gap between design and engineering
- Ensuring Web Test Runner consistency in code and accessibility testing
Team spotlight
Emily Gorelik
Emily Gorelik
Software Developer
“I automated the most tedious parts of our development process, such as new component code generation and templatized our reference website ‘view code’ snippets. These little things are not as flashy or visible as some components, but have a high impact on productivity and help to streamline developing and documenting new components.”
What I’m proud of:
- Documenting and standardizing over 300 CSS variables across 25+ components Creating the new file templates through plop to make starting new components faster and easier
- Getting testing coverage above 80% across all components
- <nys-stepper> and <nys-table>
- Managing the GitHub Kanban board, migrating tickets, sprint organization, etc. Creating the NYSDS dashboard to track different metrics across GitHub, Figma, Office Hours etc.
- Organizing the applications for our student assistant openings and taking part in interviews
Team spotlight
Ben Greenberg
Ben Greenberg
Integration Specialist
“I was able to show teams how fast they can create new or re-create existing front ends for their applications using the design system.”
What I’m proud of:
- Re-creating an application front-end using Figma and the design system
- Continuing to use and learn new technologies (i.e. Figma)
- Contributing to accessibility scans and findings
Team spotlight
Doug Bartow
Doug Bartow
Platform Coordinator
“It was so incredibly gratifying to help launch the NYS Design System and our open-source reference site in 2025.”
What I’m proud of:
- Designed and established a clear, modern visual brand for the NYS Design System that is flexible, and fits alongside existing NYS digital properties
- Collaborated to design and publish our reference site that is accessible, distinctive, and useful for designers, developers, and engineers who work for and with NYS
- Helped educate our users and market the Design System as a tool to make the design and development of NYS web apps accessible, consistent, and more efficient
- Worked closely with our newly-formed Digital Accessibility Team to help define a new NYS a11y visual brand and ensure accessibility in the NYS DS
- 2025 brought accessibility as a foremost concern to my design process and workflow
- Became a Figma-first designer for the first time in my career
Team spotlight
Mashya Mumin
Mashya Mumin
UX Student Assistant
“Contributing to a design system that advances accessible and inclusive digital experiences for New York communities, especially those that shaped my own design perspective, has been incredibly meaningful.”
What I’m proud of:
- Redesigning the NYS Design System reference site homepage
- Building a deeper understanding of design system variables and components, and how they enable consistency and scalability across agencies
- Designing slides that explain how to use the Figma Design System to support clearer onboarding
Thanks for building with the NYS Design System.
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