Hello, I’m Ariel Salminen, a Design Systems Architect with 20 years of experience helping companies build tools for the web platform.
From setting up the right tools to forming robust processes and teams, I love making complex systems easier and more efficient to manage. Does your team need help? Some of the most well known organizations out there trust the work I do, including Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Cisco, Microsoft and U.S. Government.
Recent Work
Elena Web Components
Elena is a simple, tiny library (2.6kB) for building Progressive Web Components. Unlike most web component libraries, Elena doesn’t force JavaScript for everything. You can load HTML and CSS first, then use JavaScript to progressively add interactivity.
I created Elena after nearly a decade of building enterprise-scale design systems with web components. The recurring pain points were often similar: layout shifts, flash of unstyled content, poor server-side rendering support, too much reliance on client side JavaScript, accessibility issues, and so on…
Elena was built to solve these problems while staying grounded in web standards and what the platform natively provides. If you need web components that work across multiple frameworks, render HTML and CSS before JavaScript loads, and sidestep the common issues mentioned, Elena is built for exactly that.
It handles the cross-framework complexity (property/attribute syncing, event delegation, framework compatibility) so you can focus on building components rather than the plumbing.
Open projectNord Design System
Nordhealth hired me in 2020 to help reimagine what the company’s approach to designing, building and shipping digital products at scale should look like. During the next 5 years I have lead the vision, strategy, roadmap and implementation of Nord.
I started my work with Nordhealth by conducting a series of user research activities and workshops to reveal a lack of alignment and personal biases across business units, products and teams to understand how the design system could help them.
When we had a clear view of the challenges that we wanted to solve, it was a matter of creating fundamental principles and goals for the system that we could follow as a team. We came up with four primary goals for Nord. At the same time, I also created design principles for the design systems work that would form the foundations for Nord and help us do better and more informed decisions.
Whenever I talk about Nord Design System, one of the first things that I like to mention is that it’s tech agnostic, not tech specific. Meaning that you can take any component from Nord and use it with any framework. That could be Angular, React, Preact, Vue.js, plain HTML, your old PHP application, or any future framework. We achieved this by building on top of existing web standards (Web Components to be exact), instead of choosing a specific framework to go with.
Nord’s tech-agnostic thinking isn’t limited to components either, all of the styles are agnostic as well. We used design tokens instead of hard coded values to ensure a better UI consistency across different platforms. Be that a web application, a native application, a mobile application, a VR solution, or something new that doesn’t even exist today.
Eventually, being very hands-on personally, I also designed and built the majority of the system’s infrastructure, APIs, Web Components, Eleventy based documentation platform, accessibility best practices, and wrote most of the system’s documentation.
Additionally, I created supporting design system tooling such as the Nord Color Utilities and the Nord Color Generator that generates color palettes programmatically for use with the Nord Themes. I also built a tool called Nord Theme Builder for testing and manipulating the existing design system themes.
Today, Nord Design System is widely recognized in the tech industry and serves as Nordhealth’s design system for products, digital experiences and brand. It’s a collection of reusable components and tools, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build digital products and experiences.
In 2022, I wrote about launching Nord Design System and was more recently, in 2024, interviewed by the Design Systems Guide about this work. Nord Design System was eventually nominated for Jamstack Conf Jammies award in addition to Best Design System award.
Open projectNordhealth
Between 2021 – 2023 I worked as the Head of Design and later as the CDO overseeing Nordhealth’s design operations and driving the company’s design transformation. We scaled a team of 1 to a team of 20 designers and frontend developers over this period.
I also redesigned Nordhealth’s brand identity from the ground up to mirror the growth and transformation of the company into the leading cloud-based provider of healthcare and veterinary software. As a result, “Three Plus Group” and “Finnish Net Solutions” today have a new name and an unified corporate identity called “Nordhealth.”
The rebranding I did was a start of a bigger design transformation in the company. We didn’t just merely rethink the corporate brand. We continued this work and I helped to re-imagine Nordhealth’s company values, design processes and development tools. Eventually this work also lead to us publishing the Nord Design System.
In April, 2021, I wrote a press release about Nordhealth’s brand refresh which represented “togetherness.” Nordhealth’s new brand is today widely recognized in the industry and attracts skilled experts across the globe to work for them.
Open projectDuet Design System
I helped LocalTapiola establish their design systems infrastructure between 2018 and 2021. My foundational work on reinventing how LocalTapiola builds digital products lead to a big design transformation in the organization.
LocalTapiola is one of the biggest insurance groups in Finland. During the first months of working with this client I conducted design systems research and workshops, in addition to introducing new guidelines and approach for improving the accessibility and performance of their products.
Following this, I designed and built the foundational architecture, design token system, CSS framework, icon library, testing automation, and most of their web components. I also designed and developed a custom documentation platform, design system analytics tools, and a command line interface for the system.
In 2019, I wrote an article on why we use web components in the Duet Design System. In 2020, I built a set of extensions for the system that made it possible to render the code based components in design tools, getting rid of the need to maintain separate design and code libraries.
Ultimately, my foundational work on the new design tools lead to a big design transformation in the whole organization.
Open projectTrusted by
My work influences how the industry builds digital products.
Testimonials
“If you were to ask me who is a solid pair of hands in design systems, I’d answer Ariel before you even finished the question. Solidity is what you *need* in design system work and Ariel’s unreal experience, matched with her expert level knowledge of the web platform will put you in the safest possible hands.”
“Someone asked a while back who was one of my biggest mentors in my work, almost instantly thought of Ariel. She's taught me a lot about design systems, but also about empathy and knowing the right time to join the conversation. Would love to work together again.”
“You can’t have a serious conversation about design systems without mentioning Ariel. Her work has inspired so many design and development teams, and she has a way of bringing talented people together wherever she goes. It’s been a privilege and a joy to have worked with her on Duet and to work with her again on Nord.”
“I’ve been waiting eagerly for this launch — Ariel’s work really feels like a new gold standard for long-term framework independent design systems. ‘Can be also used *without* any JavaScript framework.’ Amazing work Ariel.”
“I have been lucky to work alongside Ariel many times over the course of a decade. She is a pleasure to work with — kind, empathetic, driven. She is a tremendously talented designer, while being equally adept writing code. This rare combination of traits allows Ariel to produce work of an exceptional quality. Working with her always inspired me to push harder and do better.”
“I was fortunate enough to have worked closely with Ariel. She is a tremendously talented designer and understands the broader user experience. Ariel is a leader and passionate about her craft. She understands the client needs and knows how to solve deep complex design problems through thoughtful design. She has a great attitude and is a delight to work with.”
“Watching Ariel’s work on design systems from Vue Design System to Duet Design System and now Nord Design System. I’ve always enjoyed the attention to detail in the documentation sites she works on. The added little features like opening up a component in CodePen. Always lovely to revisit and see what’s been updated and improved.”
“I really like the Nord Design System, especially their support page. It does a great job at communicating the design system service model. Here’s some frequently asked questions, here’s our office hours, here’s where to get in touch with us. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, here’s what our processes look like for handling it all. That’s truly the stuff that makes or breaks a design system.”
“Ariel has one of the most unique combinations of talents I’ve encountered in my 20+ year software and design career. You cannot go wrong with embarking on any enterprise with Ariel. She has my highest commendation. She’s a craftswoman at heart, that happens to be a veteran designer, product owner and coder. And did I mention she’s a delight and pleasure to work with?”
“I really like how Ariel simplified it so it can be used for prototyping really easily. All you do is add some script tags. Then you can use the components in HTML like so:
<duet-button>Send</duet-button>”
“Ariel, massive shout out for the Nord Design System and to the team that built it. It's just next level stuff. The quality, the attention to detail and how well you have thought it through is just remarkable. I just can’t stop looking through the pages.”
“Nord Design System is a fantastic example of a system with accessibility guidelines, naming conventions, localization, support for RTL-languages, do’s and don’ts and a theme builder tool. Kudos to Ariel Salminen and the team!”
“The Nord Design System docs are like a gold standard. I've been sharing the link around at every opportunity!”
“Ariel is easily one of the most talented designers I have ever worked with. She has developed a strong skillset over her career that span from graphic design to frontend development, and she’s done this while still staying true to her goal as a designer which is to create products and services that are built around and for their users.”
“I've been building a design system with Stencil for my company for about a year now and I must honestly say that Duet is the absolute best design system I’ve seen so far and I’m going to take a lot of inspiration from there. Absolutely amazing work!”
“I had the priviledge to work with Ariel on a design project for a client developing a new version of their enterprise web app. It was a pleasure to work with her and the client was very satisfied. I can highly recommend her for pretty much any design project involving user experience design, user interface design or design systems.”
“It was huge for our customers. Ariel’s designs were very very well received. It isn’t a question of whether this is the right product or not anymore, but when can we ship it.”
“The quality of Ariel’s work is absolutely fantastic, where every single detail has been carefully thought through. She’s an extremely versatile professional, and very passionate about her craft. I’ve been lucky enough to work with her for over 4 years on several projects, and hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the future.”
“There are so many great details and decisions made in Duet Design System. I really like the colour design tokens with the description of usage and the colour contrast inline with the colours. The guidelines are really thorough. And the guide on using the components in your JS framework of choice (or not) is really good. Top stuff!”
“Thanks for all the great work, this is looking really good.”
“Ariel is awesome to work with, easy going and talented at her job. For some reason projects go smoothly when she’s on the team. It’s refreshing to work with someone who’s not only fluent in interaction and visual design but also well accomplished in programming.”
“The Brian Eno of design systems.”
“What Ariel did with the Nord Design System is amazing! The documentation page is one of the best I have ever seen. From the information architecture to the design itself, it is a real inspiration for me and probably other systemic designers as well.”
“Ariel produces superb quality every time. She is uniquely talented in many aspects and works with great ethics. What’s even more important, she’s really dedicated in improving her work; and is a great fun to work with. I'd choose her any time for any web development project.”
“I have done a project with Ariel. Co-operating with her was very pleasant and fluent. She takes her work very seriously and provides great results on time. She exceeded my expectations. I would hire Ariel again.”
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Does your team need help? I’m available for both local and remote design systems projects around the world. I favor long term engagements where I can embed into your organization to bring more value. See the full list of services I provide.
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