Client
Services
UX/UI Design
Design System
Figma Training
UX/UI Design
Design System
Figma Training
Brief
Migrate and rebuild Subito’s entire design system in Figma, and help the team transition seamlessly
Timeline
Three weeks

All systems go.

When Subito, one of Italy’s top 10 online destinations, was in a rush to migrate and rebuild their design system in Figma, they called Belka.

It’s classified
Introducing Subito

In Italy, Subito is kind of a big deal. With more than 11m active monthly users, it’s the country’s biggest classifieds service as well as one of the most popular online destinations.

When Covid hit, Subito’s designers were on a deadline to release a brand new product. As they scrambled to adapt to working from home, they realized they needed to make some big changes.

Belka’s brief: Migrate and rebuild Subito’s entire design system in Figma, and help the team transition without losing days of work.

Massimiliano Bolognesi's profile picture
Alberto Conti's profile picture
Eleonora Pasini's profile picture
Silvia Spiaggiari's profile picture
Lara Ciccarelli's profile picture
I’ve never worked with such a well-organized design system before. Belka helped us seamlessly transition from Sketch to Figma, while we focused on our work.
Silvia Spaggiari
Product Designer, Subito
Photo of Silvia, Product Designer at Subito.it
Belka understood Subito’s team and our way of working. They created a tool for us that we use every day, and really feels like it’s ours.
Lara Ciccarelli
Head of UX, Subito
Lara Ciccarelli's profile picture
We were aligned throughout, and they delivered everything on time. Belka’s support, availability and collaboration, especially during the training phase, was indispensable to our team.
Alberto Conti
UX Manager & Design Lead, Subito
Alberto Conti's profile picture

The great migration
From Sketch to Figma

In March 2020, Subito’s design team was facing a serious problem. For years, they had been using Sketch as a design environment and repository for their design system, mostly without problems.

But then disaster hit. Literally.

Forced by the global pandemic to work from home, the team found that Sketch, a non-cloud platform, was creating serious bottlenecks, just as when they were about to launch an important new product.

They had to figure out a solution, and they had to do it quickly.

Brave new world
Belka + Figma

The team’s new tool of choice was Figma, a collaborative, cloud-based tool that lends itself organically to design system thinking and remote work.

The benefits of a quick transition were tangible. But Subito’s own designers were busy, and most of them had never worked with Figma before.

So obviously they called Belka.

An illustration of Subito's design system elements
A group of logos showing Credimi, Scalapay, Fatture in Cloud and Audiencerate

Belka ♡ Design Systems

Over the last few years Belka has created and implemented design systems in Figma for clients in various industries and countries.

As design partner to Italy’s largest invoicing service, Fatture in Cloud, we created a design system that’s now in use across multiple products at the company.

And among our other notable clients are fintech startups Scalapay and Credimi, and the UK-based adtech scaleup Audiencerate.

So when Subito came knocking — well, you get the picture.

Why does Belka ♡ design systems?
The logos of different companies: Credimi, Scalapay, Fatture in Cloud and Audiencerate
For us a design system is more than just another tool. It’s a radically new way for large teams to work together, and make sure everyone is on the same page — designers, developers, marketing, and all the different business units.
Claudio Postinghel
Pirate and Product Designer, Belka
Claudio Postinghel's profile picture

Under the hood
A design system in action

One component to control them all

With Figma’s master component/instance structure, Subito’s designers can define all the attributes of a UI element in the design system. Any changes that they make to a master component will automatically cascade down to all instances of that component, throughout the whole design.

Rewind animation
Rewind animation

Sticker sheet mania

The sticker sheet is an indispensable part of Subito’s design system setup. A separate file with a well organized overview of all the components of the system, the sticker sheet a great way to review and work with component libraries without the fear of breaking something, or spending minutes looking for the right component.

Rewind animation
Rewind animation

A quick transition
Workshop and training

Subito’s designers needed more than a rebuilt design system in Figma. They also needed the skills and confidence to use their new system effectively right away.

In preparation for the big transition, Belka’s crack team of pirates (see photo) designed a two-day workshop and training materials. Just enough to introduce Subito’s team to Figma and help them get used to their new design environment.

A photo showing Claudio Postinghel teaching to Subito's team
Eleonora • Subito.it
Hey, but how can I be sure that this component's autolayout works well?
Claus • Belka
Try to break it! Stretch it, squeeze it, write long and short texts — so you'll know when it's ready!

Belka’s crack team of experts came up with a workshop to introduce Subito’s team to both Figma as a tool, and to use it to work with their shiny new design system.

A photo showing Claudio Postinghel teaching to Subito's team
The thing we're most proud of? The Subito design team had no downtime. We worked behind the scenes to enable their work, providing a new tool perfectly crafted to their needs.
Giulio Michelon
Co-Founder and CEO, Belka
Giulio Michelon's profile picture
Daniele Ratti's profile picture

Having a single source of truth for all our products has been game changing.

Daniele Ratti
CEO, Fatture in Cloud
Mirco Mattevi's profile picture

The design system Belka created for us helped us be better at our jobs. We were incredibly impressed.

Mirco Mattevi
Head of Product, Scalapay
The thing we're most proud of? The Subito design team had no downtime. We worked behind the scenes to enable their work, providing a new tool perfectly crafted to their needs.
Giulio Michelon
Co-Founder and CEO, Belka
The thing we're most proud of? The Subito design team had no downtime. We worked behind the scenes to enable their work, providing a new tool perfectly crafted to their needs.
Giulio Michelon
Co-Founder and CEO, Belka
The thing we're most proud of? The Subito design team had no downtime. We worked behind the scenes to enable their work, providing a new tool perfectly crafted to their needs.
Giulio Michelon
Co-Founder and CEO, Belka

But enough about us
Let's talk about you

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