Aligning scalable UX patterns across complex data products
SAP UX Design Intern
During my 13-month UX Design internship, I worked on SAP’s Data & Analytics Design System team, supporting SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere, and SAP Business Data Cloud.
My work focused on aligning UX patterns across products, creating scalable Figma components and guidelines, and preparing developer specs and accessibility requirements.
I collaborated with product designers, developers, PMs, and the central design system team to balance cross-product consistency with the needs of complex, data-heavy workflows.
📅 Year
May 2025 - May 2026
🔧 Tools
Figma, FigJam, Jira, Claude
📝 NDA Note: Some details and visuals have been simplified or replaced with public examples due to NDA restrictions. I’m happy to discuss my process and contributions in more detail during an interview.
Aligning UX patterns
A large part of my work focused on improving consistency across SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Datasphere, and SAP Business Data Cloud. Although the products often supported similar workflows, years of independent development had resulted in different implementations of the same UX patterns.
For projects including diagram nodes, side panels, and notifications, I began by collecting existing implementations and meeting with product design leads to understand their requirements, edge cases, and technical constraints. I then compared these needs across products and explored how a shared pattern could support as many real use cases as possible.
Once a direction presented by me was agreed on with product leads, I created or updated the supporting Figma components, developer specifications, usability guidelines, and accessibility guidance.
Challenge
Some products relied heavily on legacy or custom-built patterns that no longer aligned with current design system guidance. These patterns often supported product-specific requirements that could not simply be removed.
I worked with product leads and senior designers to understand why each variation existed, which requirements were still necessary, and where products could move toward a shared solution.
When an existing pattern conflicted with current standards, I backed up my reasonings with guidance from the central design system and proposed alternatives rather than simply removing functionality.
For requirements that were not fully supported by the existing design system, I explored how components could be extended for data complex products.
Impact
The resulting components, guidelines, developer specs, and accessibility documentation gave product teams a shared reference for future implementation.
Instead of approaching similar UX problems independently, teams could work from a common pattern while still supporting the requirements unique to their products.
The Side Panel project was one of the areas where I had the most ownership. I worked as the sole designer from the initial audit through component design and documentation.
I collected examples across the three products, met with product leads both individually and as a group, and mapped differences in content, actions, navigation, and interaction requirements.
The challenge was creating a shared structure that remained flexible enough for different data-heavy workflows without becoming overly complex.
I translated these requirements into a reusable Figma component and created the supporting developer specification, usability guidelines, and accessibility instructions.
Leading an AI & MCP workshop for designers
As AI tools became more integrated into design workflows, I worked with my team to plan and deliver a hands-on Claude + Model Context Protocol (MCP) workshop for UX and UA designers in Vancouver.
The workshop covered MCP setup, Figma workflows, and practical prompting techniques, with hands-on exercises using existing design system components. I helped shape the content, prepare examples, and create supporting guides and resources for attendees.
During the workshop, I introduced core MCP terminology, participated in the Q&A panel, and provided 1:1 support during the hands-on exercises to help participants troubleshoot and follow along.
Challenge
Participants had different levels of technical experience, so we needed to make MCP approachable without oversimplifying it. I focused on creating clear, step-by-step exercises tied to realistic design system use cases.
Impact
The workshop gave Vancouver UX and UA designers a practical starting point for experimenting with MCP and AI-assisted design workflows, supported by resources they could continue using after the session.
Our team also became one of the first design teams within SAP to create internal MCP and AI workflow guidance. As interest grew, design teams from other countries reached out for our setup guides, tutorial videos, workshop materials, and presentation recordings, extending the impact beyond the original workshop.
Supporting new product workflows
I supported feature design for the My Metrics project after its MVP release, helping the team expand the experience into a dedicated dashboard where users could view, organize, and create metrics.
My work included reviewing global UX feedback, exploring user flows, contributing to feature prototyping and floorplan exploration, and researching how existing design system components could support the new experience. I also worked with the central design system team when existing components needed to be adapted or extended.
Challenge
The experience needed to display a large amount of information within limited space, especially in card-based layouts. Existing components did not always support the content requirements without becoming crowded or requiring custom solutions.
I reviewed existing card patterns and identified what information was essential for users to see at a glance. I then explored ways to extend existing components instead of creating new one-off patterns, testing different content hierarchies and layouts within the available space. When I reached the limits of the current system, I connected with the central design system team to confirm constraints and discuss scalable extensions.
Impact
I helped the team reuse and enhance existing components instead of creating unnecessary patterns, improving consistency while still supporting the needs of the new Metrics experience. This helped balance feature flexibility with long-term design system scalability.
Validating through research
Throughout my internship, I also participated in research activities to better understand how both customers and internal designers were using SAP products.
I joined eight customer research sessions, working alongside UX researchers to synthesize notes and identify recurring needs and actionable findings.
Later, I helped create a design system user survey to understand how internal teams interacted with the system. I contributed to deciding what we wanted to learn, building the survey, and analyzing the results.
These projects gave me another way to evaluate design decisions—not only through consistency and technical requirements, but through feedback from the people actually using the products and design system.
Contributing to the UX community at SAP
I also had opportunities to contribute to the wider UX community at SAP.
For Impulse, a full-day internal UX event, I worked alongside the Head of UX, full-time designers, and other interns to help organize the event. I supported merchandise and physical preparation and led the activity portion of the day, creating six interactive stations designed to encourage creativity and engagement.
I also participated in planning smaller team events and activities throughout my internship.
These experiences gave me opportunities to work with people outside my immediate project teams and contribute to the design culture around me.
