Efficient design for digital excellence with the ALDI SOUTH design system
With the ALDI SOUTH design system, the Customer Interaction department has created an indispensable tool for the design, development and maintenance of our digital products. It provides basic design principles and reusable design components that ensure a consistent look and feel across all digital touchpoints for our customers. We have now been honoured with the prestigious Red Dot Award 2023 in the Interface & User Experience Design category.
The ALDI SOUTH design system is a versatile “design kit” for our digital product development. It contains fundamental design guidelines and standardised design elements – from individual symbols to fully usable templates. The ALDI SOUTH brand identity is deeply anchored in icons, typography, colour palettes, forms and layout grids. All elements are based on our well-known brand logo, which was given a new look in 2017.
The “ALDI CURVE” and the “ALDI GAP” of our stylised “A” in the brand symbol are particularly noteworthy in the design system. Both can be found unmistakably in all UI components. This ensures a consistent look and feel across all our digital products – whether it’s the ALDI SOUTH app for practical shopping planning or the meinALDI app to use our convenient grocery delivery service.
The journey to our ALDI SOUTH design system
In 2021, the responsible Customer Facing Solutions UX/UI design team, part of our Customer Interaction department, started building the ALDI SOUTH design system. The team was looking for a solution to efficiently answer frequent questions about and for design fragments and to create design elements that allow flexible combinations and faster solutions for recurring tasks.
The UX/UI designers and user researchers needed a deep understanding of the brand identity to ensure harmonisation across all products and consistency throughout the company – and also to reflect our three core values with the ALDI SOUTH design system. This is because consistency, simplicity and responsibility have guaranteed satisfied customers and employees in all areas for decades. In addition, the development and introduction of the system required effective communication from the design team, intensive training and a clear roadmap for the customisation and further development of the system. For a year now, there have been monthly releases to further develop the design principles, interactions and interface elements. This is a joint effort with many other colleagues as well, as designers, researchers, product owners, developers and other stakeholders are all effectively involved in digital product development.
Smart shopping – at any time, everywhere
Even back then, when we introduced the new brand logo, the aim was to find a binding and common visual element for our various ALDI SOUTH countries. The ALDI SOUTH design system now enables us to continue a consistent, recognisable brand presence in the digital world even more, which improves usability, offers a seamless shopping experience and strengthens our brand identity. What customers already know from the store, they should not have to do without in the digital world. The ALDI SOUTH design system is therefore another building block in our digital transformation. We will extend it to internal and other areas of application and integrate it more closely into our software development in order to further increase the efficiency of our digital product development and contribute to creating products and projects that are visible and tangible for our customers in their everyday lives.
Help us shape the future of retail together: Take a look at our job openings and apply now!