I found the gaps in Carbon and filled them.

Button guidance

The problem wasn't the button component — it was how teams were using it. Primary buttons appeared everywhere, placement varied between products, and the same component produced vastly different experiences.

I created guidance covering the decisions the component docs didn't answer: which button should be primary, where they should sit, how many belong on a page, and how to maintain hierarchy. I also wrote new guidance for menu buttons and combo buttons.

The guidance later influenced Carbon's core button content, turning product-level lessons into system-level standards.

Don't: two primary buttons appearing on the same page across different zones, creating competing focal points with no clear hierarchy.

The problem

Multiple primary buttons on the same page — a pattern across many products. The Sketch defaults made it the path of least resistance.

Carbon Champion Award · 2022

"Special shout out to Laura for a significant amount of work on button guidance — helping to align Carbon components, patterns, and guidance across multiple product teams."

Figma kit

IBM's move from Sketch to Figma created an immediate challenge: Carbon for IBM Products needed a complete Figma kit before designers could migrate.

I led a small team in building it from scratch, delivering 30+ components and patterns despite having no prior Figma experience. As the kit launched, Carbon 11 was already underway, requiring a full update to align with new components, tokens, and styles.

Two major transitions. One lean team. The goal was simple: give designers a trusted foundation and keep them moving.

Carbon for IBM Products Figma kits 2022 stats — 12,848 weekly component inserts, top 5 components, and 165% average usage growth between July and November 2022.

Carbon for IBM Products Wrapped

Launched in July 2022, the kit reached 12,848 weekly component inserts — a 165% growth in usage by December.

Growth Award · 2022

"Laura demonstrated exceptional leadership delivering the Figma kit with a small team — and was a key contributor to the asset creation, delivered in time for designers' migration to Figma."

The rest

My contributions to Carbon have ranged from new patterns and guidance to Figma libraries, design reviews, research, and community resources.

They weren't driven by a roadmap of contributions. They were driven by real product teams encountering real gaps — guidance that didn't go far enough, patterns that didn't exist, or examples that were too difficult to find.

The contribution always followed the need. That's what allowed the work to be adopted, not just published.

Project gallery — a searchable grid of IBM product screenshots organised by category.

Product Gallery

Created a searchable gallery of IBM product experiences, making good design easier to discover, reuse, and scale. View gallery ↗

Technical Collaboration Achievement Programme · 2022 & 2024

"The contributions to Carbon for IBM Products play a crucial role in the success of our business and in building a collaborative ecosystem and implementation of an open approach."

Carbon Champion Award · 2024

"For conducting research and creating the Product Gallery, which showcases design work from software products across the portfolio — fostering collaboration, consistency, and inspiration across teams."