One Design System, 12 Countries and an Intense Hackathon in Vienna

Raiffeisen Tech Poland was represented at the event by Zuzanna Chmura, Weronika Waszkiewicz and Elvira Zelena from UX Designer Team, who actively contributed to the international exchange of knowledge and experiences. We are especially proud that Zuzanna was part of the winning team, while Weronika and her team secured second place.

The first day was all about presentations, demos and knowledge sharing. On the second, we moved from theory to action during a hands-on hackathon. And there was definitely a lot to talk about..

The Design System is constantly evolving, and so are the tools and solutions that designers and developers use every day. One of the key topics on the first day was its future and the direction in which it is heading.

During the presentations, we had a chance to see how new solutions could support consistent experiences across different platforms and brands. It was also an opportunity to exchange knowledge, hear different perspectives and better understand how the Design System can respond to the changing needs of teams and products.

The first day gave us a shared context for what came next: putting some of these ideas into practice during the hackathon.

The presentations showed us just how broad the idea of a modern Design System can be.

We learned, for example, that a mobile Design System can go beyond visual elements to include notification sounds and vibrations. We also saw a new token system covering colors, typography, effects and sizing.

One of the most tangible examples came from Figma. The new approach demonstrated how an entire screen can switch from one brand to another in a single action, for example from Raiffeisen to Tatra Banka, including different colors and fonts.

And there was a developer perspective too. We had a chance to look at how Design System solutions work in code on Android and iOS. The mobile stream also explored another increasingly relevant topic: foldable phones. And, of course, no conversation about the future of digital products would be complete without AI.

During one of the sessions, Ekin, a UDS designer, showed us how he uses AI agents to design animations. As part of the presentation, he compared AI-generated work on the same icons with work created by Zuzanna Chmura, UX Designer at Raiffeisen Tech Poland.

It offered an interesting perspective on the ongoing conversation around AI. Agents can support the creative process and help us work faster, but human skills and creativity still make a real difference.

The first day also gave us a chance to hear perspectives from different networks, including Albania, Ukraine and Poland, turning the event into a truly international exchange of experiences. Together with Elvira, I represented the Polish network and delivered a presentation on a topic we would also like to share with our colleagues in Poland. I won’t reveal too much just yet, but it was a great opportunity to exchange our perspective with the international Design System community. Then came day two. And with it, the real test.

More than 60 participants formed around six multidisciplinary teams. Each included a product owner, a web developer, an Android developer, an iOS developer and no fewer than four designers.

That alone was an interesting challenge. Before we could even start solving the task, we first had to figure out how to work effectively in such large groups.

The hackathon scenario connected two sides of the same customer journey.

Our task was to create a mobile application for external customers and a web-based back-office application, with both applications communicating as part of one coherent flow.

The scenario focused on a fictional Coinbank customer whose transaction had failed even though the money had disappeared from her account. We had to design a solution to the problem, such as a refund, while also including a mandatory chat connecting the customer and back-office perspectives. And we had just one day to make it happen.

The winning team included Zuzanna Chmura from Raiffeisen Tech Poland.

The team won over the audience with a comic that introduced the characters and their story before the actual hackathon scenario began. But the implementation of the web application also attracted plenty of attention.

Alona Smetanina from Ukraine surprised everyone with how many useful features she managed to build in just one day in an application based on GDS. Her work also earned her a special award from the GDS team for the highest number of contributions.

When accepting the award, she shared a simple message: if you need something in the Design System and it doesn’t exist yet, build it yourself and contribute it.

I couldn’t agree more. To me, this captures what a Design System community is really about. It is not only about using a shared system, but also about actively contributing to its development.

The team I was part of finished in second place, which I’m very proud of. We divided up the work, and I was responsible for the web design and for designing a new component, which could earn us some extra points. The other designers focused on the mobile experience, while together we worked on refining the touchpoints between both parts of the solution.

Building two connected applications in a single day would have been difficult without an extra pair of hands. During the hackathon, that role was often played by AI.

Every team used agents in some form. Designers used them. Developers used them. Product owners used them too, even managing to create a multi-slide PowerPoint presentation just three minutes before the deadline.

For me, it was a very practical demonstration of what AI can already bring to multidisciplinary teams.

AI speeds up the work, and a well-built harness equipped with the right Design System context can make that work significantly easier.

But perhaps the most important takeaway from those two days in Vienna wasn’t about a particular technology, component or token.

It was about bringing people from different countries and disciplines together around a shared system, creating space to exchange knowledge and experiences, and then giving us the opportunity to put new ideas into practice.