Intuitive Surgical Design Systems

I worked closely with product and engineering leadership at Intuitive to implement a unified design system across Intuitive’s customer portals and web app offerings, creating an entirely new digital space designed to attract and engage patients directly with robotic surgery. This work required balancing clinical credibility with approachability—translating complex surgical technology into clear, human-centered experiences that built trust with patients while remaining compliant and technically robust. By aligning design system foundations with product strategy, we enabled faster experimentation, clearer storytelling, and a consistent brand presence across patient-facing education, discovery, and engagement journeys.

In order to better address and fix the problems with the scheduling experience, the system required standardization of the design system. So I led the team to start with a full scale cleanup of the company wide app design system with the following outcomes:

• All components are AA compliant, text is AAA compliant
• WCAG 2.1 guidelines fully followed and implemented
• Design files are componentized. Older deliverables are archived, and all new deliverables are in the standardized format

In parallel, the same system delivered significant B2B impact by improving CRM and analytics workflows within Intuitive’s customer portals. Standardized components and interaction patterns drove more consistent engineering output, reduced rework, and accelerated delivery across teams. We also introduced AI-assisted development workflows, leveraging tools like Builder.io and Cursor to automate portions of UI and code generation—allowing designers and engineers to collaborate more tightly and ship with higher confidence. The result was a scalable, future-ready platform that supported patient growth, enterprise efficiency, and a modern, system-driven approach to building digital healthcare products.

Starting Q4 2025, Intuitive decided to reach out directly to the patients and start breaking down the barriers for a more transparent and personalizable healthcare experience.

By enabling patients to be better armed with knowledge of robotic procedures, and connecting patients with physicians, the company can make a real difference beyond selling robots to health institutions.

This thinking required a paradigm shift and the corresponding product suite to realize this vision. I decided to start at the design system level, creating and finalizing a new visual/brand guide to life, followed by the full component library for web and mobile products.

One of the first products to go live is the Physician Locator. This helps patients search for and connect with physicians, filtering by procedure types, location, insurance etc. This product has already helped more than 10,000 patients since launch.