Autodesk — UX Strategy & Component Definition at Scale

Role

Product Designer (UX-focused)

Scope

UX Strategy · Design Systems · Component Definition · Research

Industry

Enterprise Software

Context

Autodesk operates a complex ecosystem of products used by millions of professionals worldwide.

To ensure consistency and usability across this ecosystem, shared components must be carefully defined, researched, and validated before being adopted by multiple teams.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

I worked as a Product Designer focused on UX strategy and component definition, contributing to the design system by researching user needs, defining component behavior, and aligning solutions with product and engineering constraints.

  • UX research to understand usage patterns and pain points
  • Definition of component purpose, behavior, and states
  • Collaboration with product, engineering, and system teams
  • Documentation and guidelines for cross-team adoption
  • Iteration based on feedback and validation

    • Research & Insights

    Research activities helped identify gaps and inconsistencies in how similar patterns were being implemented across products.

    Research methods

    • Review of existing implementations
    • Analysis of user workflows and edge cases
    • Stakeholder interviews
    • Benchmarking against existing patterns

    Key insights

    • Similar components were being used differently across teams
    • Inconsistent behavior caused user confusion
    • Lack of clear guidelines increased design and development friction

    SOLUTION STRATEGY

    The solution focused on system-level thinking rather than individual pages.

    I defined a foundational UI system that could support multiple use cases while remaining flexible enough for future growth.

    ‍

    Component Definition & UX Design

    Each component was defined beyond its visual appearance, focusing on user intent, interaction behavior, states, and edge cases.

    ‍

    Key elements

    • Usage guidelines
    • Interaction and state definitions
    • Accessibility considerations
    • Do’s and Don’ts

    Validation & Iteration

    Component definitions were reviewed and iterated through collaboration with design system owners, product teams, and engineers.

    IMPACT & OUTCOMES

    Impact & Outcomes

    • Clear, shared component definitions across teams
    • Reduced UX inconsistencies across products
    • Faster adoption of components by product teams
    • Improved collaboration between design and engineering
    • Stronger UX consistency at scale

    REFLECTION

    This project reinforced the importance of UX strategy and systems thinking when designing at scale.

    Defining components at the UX level has a long-term impact that goes far beyond individual screens.