GO54 provides web hosting, domain registration, and cloud services to businesses across Africa. The platform had grown organically over years — functional but fragmented. I was brought in to own the full redesign and simultaneously build the design system that would make future work faster and more consistent.
The problem
The existing platform was built feature-by-feature with no shared visual language. Navigation patterns differed between products, accessibility had never been audited, and new designers onboarded by reverse-engineering existing screens rather than following any documentation.
The CPO needed design to move at product speed. That meant a design system couldn't come after the redesign — it had to be built alongside it, in lockstep with engineering.
01 / 04
Multi-product redesign
I redesigned the full platform across web hosting, domain management, and cloud services — establishing consistent navigation, information architecture, and interaction patterns across all three. Each product got a unified dashboard that followed the same structural logic.
Redesigned GO54 platform — web hosting dashboard
02 / 04
Company-wide design system
I architected the GO54 design system from scratch: tokens, components, documentation, and contribution guidelines. It cut design-to-development cycle time by 40% and enabled new designers to onboard and contribute within their first week.
GO54 design system — component library and token documentation
03 / 04
Accessibility audit and remediation
I ran a full WCAG 2.1 audit against every product surface and built accessibility compliance into the design system at the token level — colour contrast, focus states, touch targets, and screen reader patterns baked in by default, not retrofitted.
Accessibility compliance checklist embedded in component specs
04 / 04
Bi-weekly usability testing
I established a standing bi-weekly usability testing cadence, feeding findings directly into sprint prioritisation. This alone reduced post-launch redesign cycles by roughly two per quarter — catching issues in testing rather than production.
Usability test synthesis board — findings mapped to sprint backlog
Design decisions
Build the system during the redesign, not after
It would have been faster to redesign first and systematise later. But that approach would have shipped the same technical debt in a new coat of paint. Running both in parallel was harder to manage but produced a codebase and design library that could actually scale.
Accessibility at the token level
Most accessibility work is remediation — you build first, audit after, and fix. I embedded WCAG 2.1 requirements into the design tokens themselves: colour pairs, spacing minimums, focus ring specs. That meant every component that used the system was accessible by default.
Conversion as a design metric
Partnering directly with the CPO on roadmap planning meant I could tie design decisions to revenue outcomes. Tracking conversion rate as a first-class design metric changed how I prioritised — friction removal became as important as adding features.
Outcomes
Reflection
GO54 was the project that convinced me design systems are infrastructure, not documentation. The system didn't just speed up future work — it changed the quality of conversations between design and engineering. When both sides are working from the same tokens and components, disagreements become about product decisions, not implementation details.