studio kurbos
2023 - Now
HMI Series Production for Porsche
I led the series production of the Head Up Display and Instrument Cluster across five luxury models, rebuilding a decade of legacy design into one scalable global Figma design system.
Overview
Modernizing a legacy design flow, bringing the design system to life
Five luxury car models needed new HMI systems for two in-car screens. I led a team of five designers working in Scrum with teams spread across time zones. The task was to modernize the design and also to turn years of scattered legacy work into a system that could ship at scale.
The Impact
After migrating the design system from legacy tools to Figma, we launched new HMI designs for all five models with fewer UI bugs and faster ticket resolution. The release cycle dropped from two years to six months, and the team now works in one modern, standardized workflow.
Problem
A decade of legacy debt made the design hard to maintain
Design logic was hidden in legacy documents and spread across old design tools. Understanding how things worked took months of deep project knowledge, before any real design work could start.
Design tools from before and now
Research
Understanding the legacy before changing it
Through research and conversations with design teams across regions, we found that each department kept its own local design library. The cause was simple: teams used different tools in different regions. The China team had moved to Figma earlier and built a local design system there. The German team worked in Sketch, which could not share design files in real time through the cloud. As a result, the rules in the two systems no longer matched.
Ideation
Designing one system for many teams
With the research as our foundation, we worked with the other design teams on regular basis to define what a global design system for complex scenarios should look like. We started by comparing the local libraries and deciding which rules to keep, merge, or replace.
Because the legacy assets lived in tools from different eras (Sketch, Abstract, Flash, and Adobe files), a simple file transfer would not work. We deconstructed them and planned how to rebuild them in Figma, so every team could share one source of truth in real time.
Designs
A scalable global Figma design system
We organized the rebuilt assets into a component-based system. Design Tokens and templates let one system handle the different screen sizes of all five models with pixel-perfect consistency.
[配图：设计系统截图、token 结构、模板]
Precision at handoff
In series production, documentation matters as much as the design. To hand off smoothly to overseas engineers, I replaced scattered Excel sheets with structured specifications in Teams. Every UI state was documented, from default to inhibited. I also introduced cross-check practices within the team before each delivery.
[配图：规范文档截图]
Results
New HMI systems launched across five luxury models
Fewer UI bugs and faster ticket resolution
A standardized workflow that guarantees pixel-perfect implementation for mass production
[量化数据，如果有]
Overview of spending trends, category insights, and budget usage designed for faster financial scanning.
Instant card controls allowing users to freeze cards, manage limits, and update payment settings with minimal friction.
A simplified dashboard focused on balance visibility, transaction context, and clearer everyday financial workflows.
Lessons
Tools are a means, not the goal.
Moving from Sketch, Abstract, and Flash to Figma mattered because it made collaboration and communication across time zones easier. The best tool is the one that helps the team understand each other.
Understand the old way before finding a better one. The legacy design logic was hidden in old documents and tools. Learning how it worked first let us rebuild it as a modern, scalable system instead of just copying it.
