ASML is the world's most critical technology company. They manufacture the chip-making machines that enable every smartphone, laptop, and data centre on Earth. Their software platforms serve two radically different audiences with fundamentally incompatible needs: highly technical semiconductor engineers running billion-dollar fabrication facilities, and internal enterprise employees managing HR, operations, and business workflows.
The design challenge was existential: How do you build a unified design strategy for an organisation where one user is a PhD quantum physicist optimising photolithography yields, and another is an HR manager requesting vacation? How do you establish design governance across customer-facing platforms and internal tools? How do you create design maturity in an engineering-first organisation with zero design infrastructure?
We needed to establish a coherent design strategy that respected the technical rigour demanded by semiconductor engineers while creating delightful, accessible experiences for enterprise employees. This required simultaneous work on customer experience platform design, employee experience platform design, design system foundation, and organisational design maturity uplift.
"Designing for engineers who build the machines that build the world requires a different kind of rigour — and a deep respect for complexity."