Murathan Biliktu | Product Designer in Toronto

Role: Product Designer (Design System Lead) Timeline: 2024 – Present

Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Smart TV (Roku, PlayStation and more...)

Role: Product Designer (Design System Lead) Timeline: 2024 – Present

Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, Smart TV (Roku, PlayStation and more...)

When I joined Bell Media, one of my first initiatives was to assess how design could scale more efficiently across the organization. Rather than immediately diving into components, I led a discovery phase to understand the broader system: what was working, where friction existed, and how our design and development workflows were impacting speed, quality, and cross-functional alignment.

The Problem
Our team supported a growing ecosystem across four streaming platforms, each with its own brand identity, tech stack, and external development partners (including vendors for Roku and PlayStation). Yet we were operating with a static UI kit that lacked structure, consistency, and a shared understanding across disciplines.

Design decisions weren’t translating cleanly into development
Handoff was time-consuming, often manual, and led to inconsistencies
There was no unified design language or documentation to support teams beyond design

My Role
I led the strategy and execution to transition from a UI kit to a fully realized, token-based design system that could serve as a shared foundation for design, engineering, and product. This wasn’t just a visual upgrade, it became a core piece of infrastructure that enabled us to scale intelligently across platforms while improving speed and clarity of execution.

The Problem
Our team supported a growing ecosystem across four streaming platforms, each with its own brand identity, tech stack, and external development partners (including vendors for Roku and PlayStation). Yet we were operating with a static UI kit that lacked structure, consistency, and a shared understanding across disciplines.

Design decisions weren’t translating cleanly into development
Handoff was time-consuming, often manual, and led to inconsistencies
There was no unified design language or documentation to support teams beyond design

My Role
I led the strategy and execution to transition from a UI kit to a fully realized, token-based design system that could serve as a shared foundation for design, engineering, and product. This wasn’t just a visual upgrade, it became a core piece of infrastructure that enabled us to scale intelligently across platforms while improving speed and clarity of execution.

To tackle these challenges, I led the transition from a static UI kit to a fully realized, token-based design system that could support multiple brands, platforms, and teams. I began with a full audit of our existing design and development practices across Crave, CTV, TSN, and Novoo, identifying patterns, redundancies, and platform-specific gaps. Instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach, I focused on finding the right balance between standardization and flexibility, especially considering the needs of Smart TV, mobile, and web platforms.

Collaboration was central. I partnered closely with platform-specific development teams (iOS, Android, Web), and external vendors working on Roku and PlayStation. These groups historically worked in silos, so I created alignment rituals and decision frameworks that allowed us to build a system flexible enough to support varying technical constraints, while still delivering a cohesive user experience across devices.

To tackle these challenges, I led the transition from a static UI kit to a fully realized, token-based design system that could support multiple brands, platforms, and teams. I began with a full audit of our existing design and development practices across Crave, CTV, TSN, and Novoo, identifying patterns, redundancies, and platform-specific gaps. Instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach, I focused on finding the right balance between standardization and flexibility, especially considering the needs of Smart TV, mobile, and web platforms.

Collaboration was central. I partnered closely with platform-specific development teams (iOS, Android, Web), and external vendors working on Roku and PlayStation. These groups historically worked in silos, so I created alignment rituals and decision frameworks that allowed us to build a system flexible enough to support varying technical constraints, while still delivering a cohesive user experience across devices.

Aligning Dev Implementation with Token Strategy
During implementation, an Android developer flagged that the Caption1 style wasn’t rendering correctly. I reviewed the Kotlin code and noticed they were hardcoding font weights instead of using our design tokens, which broke consistency and created future maintenance risks.

While I’m not an engineer, I wanted to understand where the disconnect was happening. So I took the time to map out a cleaner, token-based structure that could be used as an example, not to write production code, but to support the team in aligning design intent with implementation.

It helped us solve the issue quickly and created a reference for similar cases. More importantly, it strengthened trust between design and engineering, not just by fixing the problem, but by meeting them in their space.

Aligning Dev Implementation with Token Strategy
During implementation, an Android developer flagged that the Caption1 style wasn’t rendering correctly. I reviewed the Kotlin code and noticed they were hardcoding font weights instead of using our design tokens, which broke consistency and created future maintenance risks.

While I’m not an engineer, I wanted to understand where the disconnect was happening. So I took the time to map out a cleaner, token-based structure that could be used as an example, not to write production code, but to support the team in aligning design intent with implementation.

It helped us solve the issue quickly and created a reference for similar cases. More importantly, it strengthened trust between design and engineering, not just by fixing the problem, but by meeting them in their space.

From a systems architecture perspective, I established a design token framework that acted as the foundation for consistency, covering color, typography, spacing, and interaction patterns. On top of that, I built a core component library with built-in accessibility and documentation standards, ensuring that each component could scale across brands without sacrificing compliance or usability.

Documentation wasn’t an afterthought, it was embedded in the process. I centralized component specs, design rationale, accessibility guidelines, and dev implementation notes into a single accessible hub that both designers and engineers could rely on. We also introduced a design QA checklist to improve the accuracy and efficiency of handoff, reducing ambiguity and tightening the feedback loop between design and development.

By approaching the system not just as a visual refresh but as product infrastructure, I was able to lay the groundwork for long-term scalability and organizational efficiency.

From a systems architecture perspective, I established a design token framework that acted as the foundation for consistency, covering color, typography, spacing, and interaction patterns. On top of that, I built a core component library with built-in accessibility and documentation standards, ensuring that each component could scale across brands without sacrificing compliance or usability.

Documentation wasn’t an afterthought, it was embedded in the process. I centralized component specs, design rationale, accessibility guidelines, and dev implementation notes into a single accessible hub that both designers and engineers could rely on. We also introduced a design QA checklist to improve the accuracy and efficiency of handoff, reducing ambiguity and tightening the feedback loop between design and development.

By approaching the system not just as a visual refresh but as product infrastructure, I was able to lay the groundwork for long-term scalability and organizational efficiency.

The Impact

We significantly reduced design and development cycles, enabling faster time-to-market for new features.
Inconsistencies across platforms dropped dramatically, resulting in a more cohesive product experience.
Most importantly, multiple product teams began using the system independently, without requiring heavy oversight, proof that it was scalable, intuitive, and integrated into their everyday work.

This project didn’t just improve design quality, it reshaped how the organization thought about product delivery. We moved from reactive execution to proactive system thinking, with clearer roles, stronger collaboration, and a more unified user experience across every platform.

The Impact

We significantly reduced design and development cycles, enabling faster time-to-market for new features.
Inconsistencies across platforms dropped dramatically, resulting in a more cohesive product experience.
Most importantly, multiple product teams began using the system independently, without requiring heavy oversight, proof that it was scalable, intuitive, and integrated into their everyday work.

This project didn’t just improve design quality, it reshaped how the organization thought about product delivery. We moved from reactive execution to proactive system thinking, with clearer roles, stronger collaboration, and a more unified user experience across every platform.

Enhancing the Museum Experience through Personalized Journeys

Enhancing the Museum Experience through Personalized Journeys

—for Ministry of Culture an Tourism

—for Ministry of Culture an Tourism

Crafting a Design System through Code-First Thinking

Crafting a Design System through Code-First Thinking

— for Agora Design Foundation

— for Agora Design Foundation