Torq Design System – Carsales

Torq was created to help with design element re-use. Adoption was key to success, requiring strong change management to quickly demonstrate value to both leadership and hands-on teams. Despite these challenges, Torq exceeded expectations—launching its first component within a year, far faster than industry norms. Today, it powers 16 projects with 44 components, delivering high-quality, consistent experiences across web, iOS, and Android. Saving thousands of hours of manual design and dev work, Torq has transformed how carsales designs and builds digital products, proving that a well-executed design system can help drive both speed and innovation at scale.

Torq’s success began with deep research—surveying carsales executives, designers, developers, product managers, and marketers to uncover user needs and secure stakeholder buy-in. These insights shaped our principles and guided development. We built the system in Figma, tracked progress in Jira, and fostered collaboration by enabling product teams to contribute. Passionate designers and developers even joined the systems team for hands-on experience. A major technical challenge was designing a scalable token structure to support multiple brands and platforms—a labor-intensive effort that proved invaluable. Continuous feedback ensures Torq evolves to meet the needs of carsales and beyond.

Torq has had a profound impact on carsales, increasing delivery speed and improving design and development quality. It enables teams to pivot quickly for A/B testing and other optimisations, while fostering stronger collaboration between designers and developers. Accessibility has been a major focus, with all components meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards for web and equivalent for native apps, ensuring a more inclusive experience for all users. Teams now see Torq as an essential part of their workflow, improving efficiency, consistency, and the overall quality of carsales’ digital experiences.

Torq is a groundbreaking design system with exceptional flexibility, enabling seamless theming across multiple brands and platforms, including web, iOS, and Android. It supports dark mode and contextual colour theming, where foreground colours adapt intelligently to their backgrounds - a capability that sets it apart from many design systems. A world-class documentation site serves as a comprehensive guide, showcasing detailed component variants, brand guidelines, and best practices. This, combined with the latest Figma features, streamlines designer-developer collaboration, making it easier than ever to build high-quality, consistent experiences. Accessibility is at the core of Torq, ensuring every component meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Teams can confidently create inclusive experiences with accessibility baked in from the start. Automated visual testing further guarantees reliability, preventing unintended regressions when updates are made. Recently, we’ve launched the Torq website publicly, sharing our expertise with the broader design and development community. By making our system accessible beyond carsales, we hope to inspire other organisations to establish and share their own design systems—driving innovation, efficiency, and inclusivity across the industry.