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Chris West

Chris West

Design Engineer & Design Systems Lead

I build design systems and the interfaces that run on them, and I make AI-generated code stay on-system.

Open to Design Engineer and Design Systems roles, NYC hybrid or remote.

daily users (TerraForge)
6,000–7,000
components, ~12 engineers (UA design system)
30+
design QA rounds
3 → 1
checkout conversion lift on UA.com
10.7%

Case studies

Under Armour

Leading the Way for Under Armour's Design System Component Library

Architect and maintainer

Problem
Every eCommerce team was rebuilding the same components, and what shipped kept drifting away from the files that specified it.
Result
One React library across all eCommerce web properties, co-maintained by about 12 engineers, with designer sign-off before release cutting design QA from three rounds to one.
components
30+
engineers on the system
~12
design QA rounds
3 → 1
accessibility
WCAG AA (audited)

Read the case study: Leading the Way for Under Armour's Design System Component Library

Open source

The SpaceUI documentation gallery, showing components and token tables

Open source

SpaceUI: Running an Open-Source Design System Like a Product

Designer, engineer, and maintainer

Problem
TerraForge's interface was worth reusing, but none of it could leave the app without forking the whole thing.
Result
An open-source React and TypeScript system on npm with zero runtime dependencies, where any app or subtree can be rethemed in plain CSS with no fork, config, or build step.
components
32
runtime dependencies
0
test coverage
93%
npm downloads / month
1,000+

Read the case study: SpaceUI: Running an Open-Source Design System Like a Product

inkOrange Studios

A procedurally rendered planet in TerraForge, with its habitability readout

inkOrange Studios

TerraForge: Shipping a 3D Science App Thousands of People Experiment with Every Day

Solo designer and engineer

Problem
NASA's exoplanet archive is a table of measurements. Nothing in it lets you see what those worlds would actually look like.
Result
A 3D planet builder people use every day, built from 5,574 rows of archive data and honest about where measurement ends and inference starts.
daily users
6,000+
planets created / day
250+
NASA exoplanets modeled
5,574

Read the case study: TerraForge: Shipping a 3D Science App Thousands of People Experiment with Every Day

What I do

Design systems

Component libraries, token architecture, and the governance that keeps a system intact once many teams depend on it. Figma naming maps one to one onto CSS custom properties, and the library is the source of truth rather than a suggestion.

Design engineering

Production interfaces built from the system: accessible to WCAG AA, keyboard complete, and matching the design files they came from. Accessibility confirmed by third-party audit, not asserted.

AI-assisted development

Version-controlled agent and skill files that point every coding agent at the component docs and conventions, so agent-written code builds with the system instead of reinventing it.

More projects

Experience

  • Under Armour

    Lead Frontend Engineer

  • inkOrange Studios

    Founder and Principal Design Engineer

  • Zebra Technologies

    Tech lead

Writing

42% of React Code Is AI-Generated. Your Design System Isn't Ready.

With 42% of React code now AI-generated and climbing to 65% by 2027, design systems are the last line of defense against fragmented, hallucinated component code.

React and Claude

Let’s talk

If you are building a design system, or trying to keep one intact while your team ships with AI, I would like to hear about it.

Download résumé