Introduction

NZPost is NZ's biggest post service with 5M users worldwide and over 300M deliveries per year. With a rich 170 year history, it might be easy to imagine the legacy digital systems and out-dated online experience. With the rise of online shopping and home deliveries, it's more important than ever to get these under control.

The challenge

• Each platform in NZPost's suite was a completely new experience for the user to learn
• Scrum teams worked in silos, duplicating research, design and coding work
• Designers spent excessive time researching new components and patterns.
• Internal conflicts over insignificant design decisions.
• A fast approaching rebrand meant something needed to change, fast.

The solution

We implemented a design system.

• We leveraged Google Materials research-backed open source design system (we didn't need to re-invent the wheel here). Then customised the components to suit our brand identity.
• A single source of truth: A central repository for design elements and guidelines, where every style, element and interaction and  was defined.
• Shared responsibility of design by not just designers, but developers, QA and PO's.
• A toolkit that designers could drag and drop pre-defined elements to build screens fast.
• An always-updated design system site for internal and external use.
• A streamlined process to maintain and improve the design system.
• A shared language about design details. (Whenever we need to say 'that's not the right red').

The impact
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Designers weren't walking blindfolded anymore. Every decision, every design element, every interaction was backed by this blueprint.

It ensured uniformity across platforms. An update or tweak in one component? The change rippled across everywhere it was used.

We immediately saw a massive reduction in errors and a drastic speed-up in design and product delivery times.

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For designers:

• Reduced research time.
• Faster screen and design creation.
• Streamlined decision-making.
• Easier stakeholder buy-in.

For developers:

• Reduced meetings with designers to discuss specs.
• Easy access to a single source of truth to build from.
• Shared ownership over design and code consistency.
• Faster building by leveraging existing components.
• Save time maintaining issues and revisiting bugs.

Putting it into practice

Here's how we leveraged the system to overhaul the user experience and rebrand NZPost's digital space.

• Transformed website from an unsupported platform to a new modern one.
• Designed & built a brand-new parcel tracking tool.
• Designed & built a platform for small businesses to ship parcels.
• Redesigned & built a tool find NZPost locations.
• Redesigned & built a tool find postcodes to send to the right address.
• And as a testament to the design system's power, we upgraded our colors, fonts and brand assets to align with NZPost's new brand identity.

The end result

• Estimated savings of 5-8 hours per week per team member.
• Total annual savings of 7,800-12,480 man-hours.
• A conservative estimate of $483,600 - $773,000 saved annually.

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Parting thoughts

If you're a business struggling with outdated systems, fragmented teams, and inefficiencies, you're losing more money than you know. Getting your design system right isn't just about saving hours; it's about transforming the very core of how your business operates and delivers. It improves customer satisfaction, and in turn customer retention.

It is the difference between having a loyal user for many years and losing a customer to a competitor.