HMS Networks

A scalable design system to bring multiple brands together under one consistent, trustworthy digital presence.

HMS Networks AB is an international leader in Industrial Information and Communication Technology (Industrial ICT), headquartered in Halmstad, Sweden. Founded in 1988, the company creates products that enable industrial equipment – from robots and drives to air-conditioning units and generators – to communicate and share data with software and systems.

Our role

UX/UI
Brand strategy

THE CHALLENGE

A fragmented digital landscape

HMS Networks came to Comprend with an ambitious goal: bring several of their brands together under one global website. But their existing digital landscape lacked clear alignment – design direction, patterns, and best practices varied across brands.

There was no shared framework for design and development, creating inefficiencies and making it challenging to scale and maintain a consistent brand experience.

Through our initial analysis, we identified that this fragmentation created inconsistencies in the user experience and made it difficult to present a unified and trustworthy digital presence. To address this, we proposed and initiated a project to develop a design system that could establish shared principles, components, and guidelines across all brands.

WHAT WE FOUND

Key insights

Brand fragmentation impacts trust

When different brands within the same organisation have inconsistent design patterns and visual language, it can weaken the overall perception of the company and reduce user trust.

Inconsistency creates operational inefficiency

Without shared guidelines, teams tend to reinvent solutions across brands, which slows down development, increases costs, and makes collaboration more difficult.

Lack of shared systems makes scaling difficult

As the organisation grows globally, the absence of a unified framework makes it harder to launch new pages, features, or brands while maintaining a consistent experience.

Users experience the company as one entity

Even if the organisation operates multiple brands, users often perceive them as part of the same ecosystem. Inconsistent design can therefore create confusion and weaken the overall brand experience.

OUR GOAL

One system, many brands

The goal of the project was to create a scalable design system that establishes shared design principles, components, and guidelines across the client's brands. This would enable a consistent global digital presence, improve efficiency for design and development teams, and ensure a cohesive and trustworthy user experience.

THE SOLUTION

A single source of truth

To address the challenge, we developed a scalable design system that established shared design principles, reusable components, and clear guidelines for all of the client's brands. The system was initially created in Adobe XD and later migrated to Figma to enable better collaboration, maintenance, and scalability.

The design system served as a single source of truth for both designers and developers, providing standardised components, patterns, and documentation that could be used throughout the design and development process. By integrating the system into development workflows, teams were able to reference and implement components directly during development phases, ensuring consistency and a cohesive global digital presence across all brands.

THE RESULT

A consistent, scalable digital presence

The project resulted in a scalable design system that established shared design principles, components, and guidelines across the client's brands.

This created a more consistent global digital presence, improved efficiency for both design and development teams, and enabled a more cohesive and trustworthy user experience across the client's digital platforms.