Building content into the design system

How I turned UX content standards into reusable design infrastructure across SentinelOne's cybersecurity platform

Company: SentinelOne
Role: Senior Staff Content Designer, content systems lead
Timeline: 2025–2026
Focus: Design systems, content architecture, UX writing, governance

Impact at a glance

  • Developed reusable content patterns across 30+ UI component types

  • Embedded content guidance and reusable variables directly into Figma components

  • Established shared standards for content across complex enterprise interfaces

  • Connected design system guidance with broader content governance and AI-assisted review

The challenge

SentinelOne's product ecosystem included numerous cybersecurity workflows, interface patterns, and specialized terms.

The Gravity design system provided reusable visual components, but content guidance was not consistently available within the components themselves.

This meant designers could reuse a visual pattern while still making inconsistent decisions about labels, helper text, error messages, terminology, and information hierarchy.

Content standards existed across separate resources, but applying them often required additional research or manual review.

I wanted to close the gap between documenting good content and making it easy to design with.

My role

I led the content design work within Gravity, partnering with design system designers and product teams to define, document, and integrate reusable content standards.

My responsibilities included:

  • Defining content guidance for UI components and interaction patterns

  • Developing reusable content variables and examples in Figma

  • Establishing standards for clarity, consistency, and accessibility

  • Integrating content checklists into component documentation and annotation workflows

  • Aligning design system guidance with the enterprise style guide and glossary

  • Identifying inconsistencies across product interfaces

  • Supporting designers in applying and extending the standards

Moving content guidance into the workflow

One of my core decisions was to make content guidance available where designers were already working.

Rather than relying exclusively on a separate style guide, I worked to embed reusable content patterns and guidance into Gravity's Figma components and supporting documentation.

This approach helped designers consider content while building interfaces instead of treating it as a final review step.

The work covered more than 30 component types and patterns, including:

  • Alerts and banners

  • Modals and drawers

  • Buttons and icon buttons

  • Tooltips

  • Form fields, placeholders, and helper text

  • Object-detail patterns and other complex interface structures

For each pattern, the goal was to establish guidance that could be reused consistently across products.

Solving recurring content problems at the system level

I used recurring content issues to identify opportunities for systemic improvements.

For example, placeholder text was sometimes being used to communicate instructions users needed after entering a value.

Because placeholder text disappears during interaction, this creates usability and accessibility problems.

I developed guidance distinguishing placeholders from persistent helper text and incorporated it into our component standards.

Other decisions addressed capitalization, terminology, action labels, and the relationship between interface structure and content hierarchy.

Instead of correcting these issues repeatedly in individual screens, I focused on improving the underlying patterns designers reused.

Connecting design systems and content governance

Gravity was part of a larger content ecosystem.

I aligned component guidance with SentinelOne's enterprise style guide, unified glossary, UX writing heuristics, and content review processes.

This mattered because designers needed consistent answers regardless of where they encountered a content question.

It also helped establish a stronger foundation for AI-assisted review.

The UX Content Review agent could reference the same design system and content standards that designers used in Figma, connecting human guidance and AI-supported workflows.

Cross-functional collaboration

I partnered closely with Gravity designers, UX leadership, and product designers to make the guidance practical for real interface design.

The work required balancing reusable standards with the needs of specialized cybersecurity workflows.

Rather than defining content rules in isolation, I used product examples and design reviews to identify gaps, refine recommendations, and ensure the standards supported actual design decisions.

Outcomes

Content guidance became part of Gravity's component documentation and annotation resources.

Reusable content variables and patterns were available directly in Figma, helping designers apply standards without relying exclusively on individual content reviews.

The work also created a shared reference point for design system discussions, product design reviews, and AI-assisted content evaluation.

While a quantitative reduction in review time or content errors was not documented, the structural impact was significant: content decisions could be addressed through reusable patterns rather than repeated one-off corrections.

What I learned

A design system is not complete when it only standardizes visual elements.

Language is part of the interface architecture. It influences what users understand, what actions they take, and how consistently they can navigate a product.

By treating content as a reusable system element, I helped move content design upstream into the tools and patterns that shape product experiences.

My takeaway: The highest-leverage content design work often happens before a screen is written—when the underlying patterns, standards, and decision-making systems are established.

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