DISCOVER PROJECT
Taco Bell / Yum Brands
Complex Design Systems
Auditing, maintaining, and evolving the Helium Design System
2025 - 2026
The Ask: Taco Bell's UK team at Yum Brands needed support maintaining and evolving the Helium Design System. With hundreds of screens and thousands of components drifting across US and UK markets, the system was losing integrity faster than it could be patched, and the long-term goal of folding Taco Bell's standalone Fresca system into Helium kept getting pushed.
SERVICES
Design Systems, UX Research, Component Auditing, Interaction Design
The Solution
Design Systems Component Auditing UX Research Interaction Design Cross-Market Documentation Brand Consistency
A full audit of Taco Bell's digital ecosystem and a clear path to one unified design system.
100+ screens audited across US and UK markets Every inconsistency documented inside Figma A clear path from Fresca into Helium First designer on the project, setting the standard for the team
Two Systems, One Brand
Yum Brands owns Helium, a universal design system meant to work across all their brands including Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Taco Bell also had its own standalone system, Fresca, managed by a separate team. The long-term goal was to fold Fresca into Helium. Our job was to understand exactly how far apart those two systems were and document every gap.
Combing Through Thousands of Components
I spent weeks reviewing all of Taco Bell's live digital touchpoints, US and UK, mobile app and responsive web, comparing them against both Helium and Fresca. What we found was consistent. Everything was slightly off. Padding, styles, colors, all drifting from the source. Minor individually, but at the scale of a global brand the inconsistencies added up fast.
The audit spanned 100+ screens and thousands of components across two markets. US and UK had diverged from each other as well, meaning every fix had to account for both. Everything was documented inside Figma so the team had a clear, actionable record of exactly what needed to change and why.
A design system is only as strong as its weakest component. On a brand like Taco Bell, where every touchpoint is experienced by millions of people, the details aren't minor — they're everything.
Two to Four Hours a Day Inside Figma
Every day looked like this. Two to four hours inside Figma, methodically comparing live components against design system spec, flagging every discrepancy, documenting what needed to be corrected before it could be folded into Helium. The audit spanned 100+ screens and thousands of components across two markets. US and UK had diverged from each other too, meaning every fix had to account for both. Everything was documented inside Figma so the team had a clear, actionable record of exactly what needed to change and why.
The most meaningful design work sometimes isn't building something new — it's making sure what already exists actually works the way it should. That's what this project was about.
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