Architecting the Future of the American Airlines Digital Experience
American Airlines Design System
Services
Client
Year
Website
The Challenge: Unifying a Global Digital Experience
As a premier global carrier, American Airlines operates a vast and complex ecosystem of customer-facing and internal digital products.
The challenge was the lack of a cohesive, single source of truth for design, which led to inconsistencies, slower development cycles, and fractured user experiences across their web and mobile platforms. The goal was to establish the first foundational Design System—a centralized, strategic framework to unify their digital presence and accelerate future innovation.
Defining the Strategic Value of a Design System
A Design System is more than a style guide; it is a complete set of standards, documentation, and reusable components that allows teams to build user interfaces at scale.
Definition: It is the single source of truth that aligns design and development teams under a shared language and component library.
Importance: By creating consistency, a Design System dramatically improves brand coherence, enhances the user experience (UX), and maximizes developer efficiency by allowing teams to assemble products rapidly instead of creating basic elements from scratch. It is the essential architecture for scalable digital growth.
REDSHIFT’s Role
Visual Design & Collaborative Architecture
REDSHIFT was brought in as the expert visual design partner to translate strategic vision into a definitive, usable design language. We collaborated intensely with our partners at Insight Enterprises, integrating our design expertise with their technical and consulting knowledge to deliver a holistic solution.
Lead Visual Design and Component Library Creation
1
Our team was responsible for the entire visual architecture of the system. This included:
Defining a robust color palette, typography hierarchy, and iconography set that aligned with the legacy and trust of the American Airlines brand.
Designing and documenting hundreds of atomic components—from buttons and form fields to complex navigation patterns—ensuring every element was visually pristine, accessible, and scalable.
Cross-Functional Integration
2
The success of a Design System is measured by its adoption across the entire organization. We worked in lockstep with multidisciplinary experts to ensure seamless implementation:
UX Designers: Collaborated to ensure the visual design layer enhanced, rather than hindered, the usability and user flow defined by the UX strategy.
Developers & Engineers: Provided engineers with pixel-perfect specifications, clear documentation, and code-ready assets, accelerating the integration of the system into development pipelines.
Content Creators: Established rigorous guidelines for tone, voice, and visual hierarchy to ensure that all brand messaging was consistent and powerfully delivered.
Business Consultants (Insight Enterprises): Aligned our visual decisions with the strategic business goals identified by the consulting team, guaranteeing the final system supported American Airlines’ long-term growth and digital transformation objectives.
The new Design System created a singular, authoritative visual framework for American Airlines
The new Design System created a singular, authoritative visual framework for American Airlines
