Vertex
- Design system
- UX/UI design
- Website production
- Remote engagement
- 11 weeks
Vertex is a data platform whose users arrive with an empty workspace and no idea what good looks like. Onboarding was a video nobody watched and a sample dataset nobody kept.
We treated empty states as the primary design surface rather than an edge case, and built the design system outward from them. Vertex’s team ran the last two sprints themselves using the documentation as the spec.
Empty states that teach the product
A documented token set
A build the team can extend
Empty states do the teaching
Every blank surface in the product explains what belongs there, why, and what it will look like once populated — with a real example, not a greyed-out silhouette. New users reach their first useful chart without leaving the product.
One system, documented
Fifty-one components with usage rules, accessibility notes and the reasoning behind each decision. The documentation is the deliverable; the Figma file is a convenience.
Built to be handed over
We wrote the system so that the answer to "can we add a variant?" is usually no, and the reason is written down. It has held for three quarters.
Sample content
The documentation is genuinely the deliverable. Our team shipped the last two sprints without them, working from the system notes alone.
Tobias Lindqvist
