Glydways Token Architecture

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SYSTEM

GlydwaysToken
Architecture9 families · 4 parameters
named from the value

Brief

Built4 parameters

Color9 families · Ember to Magenta01

LightEach color through glass · 34%02

Glass4 materials · frosted to dark03

Depth5 steps · .05 to .4004

Outcome

Scalable frameworkOne token architecture · rider, operator, embedded, web

SystemizationFoundations · components · governance

AccessibilityWCAG AA · every primary text and control

Stack

Design & prototypingFigmaLottie

BuildClaudeCSS variablesJavaScriptJSON

Role

Principal DesignerHuman Interface & Design SystemsBuilt the token architecture from 0 → 1: four parameters, every token named from its own value, one set shipped across the rider app, the vehicle UI, station signs and kiosks, and the operator console.

Team18

Software design2

Industrial design3

Product & QA5

Engineering8

Program span

2024–2026

01

Token Architecture

Lumasis treats light as a flow. Color is the source, glass is what it passes through, light is the color that comes out the other side, and depth decides what comes forward. This page is the detail behind those four parameters: every token, how it is named, and how it holds up across surfaces.

Perception

The vehicles don't see the world the way people do; they see sensor data. Lumasis starts there: the visual language is built from machine perception, then made readable for people.

Principles

The principles keep that machine-built language human.

Human

Rounded shapes, conversational micro-copy and organic motion instead of abrupt transitions.

Oasis

Deep negative space and blur keep attention on what matters right now.

Flow

Components morph and adapt, taking the rider from booking to boarding without jarring context switches.

Forward

Predictive states surface actions, like opening doors or adjusting climate, exactly when the rider needs them.

Parameters

Type and pictograms come from Metro and stay fixed. Color is the one parameter built to adapt: with no driver on board, it says which line, what's next and what needs attention. Light, glass and depth follow from it. Read the stack from the bottom; every value is a shipped token.

04 Depth
03 Glass
02 Light
01 Color

Color

Glass

Depth

Read from the bottom. Color is the value Metro hands down; light is that color once the glass sits over it, which on a dark surface lands darker — hence the negative delta. Every parameter is picked rather than dragged: nine families, four grounds, five depths, and nothing in between any two of them. The grounds are ordered by density rather than by name — .045, .20, .30, .44 — so both material rows run the same direction and the surface gets heavier toward the right. Only Tinted takes its cast from the family; the other three are fixed materials, so stepping the color moves one ground and leaves the rest where they are. Every value shown is a shipped token.

Token Architecture

The vehicles already speak in data, so the tokens had to as well. Every name is derived from its value — family from the HSL hue, step from the HSL lightness — so the token file reads the same to a designer, an engineer and a model. AI did the translation work: it turned the parameters into tokens and mapped them against ADA and WCAG requirements.

Color & Light

One family read at two levels. Color is the flat, brightest shade the Metro standard hands down; light is that same color through glass at 34% — subtractive, so on a dark surface it lands darker.

Rejected

A parallel palette for dark surfaces. Doubles the token count and lets the two drift apart.

Consequence

ΔL is the number the pair is checked on: 18 to 30 points in every family, which is also the band that clears AA.

Depth

Screens stack — a sheet over a panel over the ground — and something has to say which one is nearer. Here that is a single number: opacity, five steps, .05 → .40. The blur behind it never changes.

Rejected

A parallel blur ladder stepping down as priority rises. Two properties expressing one idea, disagreeing at the edges.

Consequence

Depth is a single number an engineer can read off a token, and blur became a function of velocity rather than a decoration.

Nomenclature

Token names come from the value itself — the family from where the hue sits, the step from the lightness. Two designers naming the same swatch independently arrive at --lum-blue-52.

Rejected

A curated semantic vocabulary. Readable on day one, contested by month three.

Consequence

Naming stops being a review topic. The token is checkable against its own value.

Color

Light

Glass

Frosted

Dark

Tinted

Prismatic

Opacities

Refractions

Depth

.05

.11

.19

.28

.40

SwatchFamilyColorLightΔLToken architecture

Bronzehue 34°#93744Bhsl(34, 32%, 44%)#3E2E1Ahsl(33, 41%, 17%)−27--lum-bronze44 / 17

Amberhue 34°#ECA74Ahsl(34, 81%, 61%)#AA6405hsl(35, 94%, 34%)−27--lum-amber61 / 34

Tealhue 168°#33A68Fhsl(168, 53%, 43%)#044E41hsl(169, 90%, 16%)−27--lum-teal43 / 16

Azurehue 198°#2C81A5hsl(198, 58%, 41%)#12465Dhsl(198, 68%, 22%)−19--lum-azure41 / 22

Bluehue 221°#2D64DDhsl(221, 72%, 52%)#142B5Chsl(221, 64%, 22%)−30--lum-blue52 / 22

Indigohue 241°#4A49A9hsl(241, 40%, 47%)#292861hsl(241, 42%, 27%)−20--lum-indigo47 / 27

Violethue 288°#793989hsl(288, 41%, 38%)#401E48hsl(289, 41%, 20%)−18--lum-violet38 / 20

Magentahue 328°#AE3375hsl(328, 55%, 44%)#471222hsl(342, 60%, 17%)−27--lum-magenta44 / 17

Emberhue 10°#C44E37hsl(10, 56%, 49%)#65120Ehsl(3, 76%, 23%)−26--lum-ember49 / 23

SurfaceGlass & DepthValueCompositionToken architecture

Frostedlayer 03 · glassrgba(255,255,255,.045)blur 22px——--lum-glass-frosted

Darklayer 03 · glassrgba(0,0,0,.44)blur 22px——--lum-glass-dark

Tintedlayer 03 · glassrgba(79,73,169,.30)blur 22px · takes the family——--lum-glass-tinted

Prismaticlayer 03 · glasslinear-gradient(122deg)magenta · blue · teal at .20——--lum-glass-prismatic

Opacitieslayer 03 · glass.05 / .11 / .19 / .28 / .40five steps——--lum-glass-opacity-scale

Refractionlayer 03 · glasslinear-gradient(100deg).04 · .22 · .04——--lum-glass-refraction

Level 1layer 04 · depthrgba(255,255,255,.05)step 1 of 5——--lum-depth-1

Level 2layer 04 · depthrgba(255,255,255,.11)step 2 of 5——--lum-depth-2

Level 3layer 04 · depthrgba(255,255,255,.19)step 3 of 5——--lum-depth-3

Level 4layer 04 · depthrgba(255,255,255,.28)step 4 of 5——--lum-depth-4

Level 5layer 04 · depthrgba(255,255,255,.40)step 5 of 5——--lum-depth-5

Token names are derived, not assigned. The stem is the family and the step is the HSL lightness, so --lum-blue-52 states its own value and two designers naming the same swatch independently arrive at the same token. The swatch is the stack from the diagram above, seen edge-on and in the same order: 01 color at the base, 02 light, 03 the glass ground, 04 depth. Color is the flat, brightest shade the Metro standard hands down; light is that color seen through refractive glass at 34%. Bands 02 and 03 carry no visible seam because they are one value reached two ways — 02 painted from the stored hex, 03 composited live in the browser — and that agreement is the premise, drawn rather than asserted. The application is subtractive: the surface is dark, so glass takes lightness away and the delta runs negative. ΔL is the number the pair is checked on, 18 to 30 points in every family, and that band is also what clears AA. Depth is carried by opacity alone — .05 · .11 · .19 · .28 · .40, against a blur that does not change. Every translucent value here composites over the page ground, #0E0E0E, and never over the plate it sits on, so a token reads the same here as it does in the figure. Blur belongs to motion, where it measures the gap between a moving object and the trail it leaves.

Accessibility

With no staff on board, nobody is there to help a rider who can't read a screen, so accessibility has to live in the interface itself.

Contrast

A dark theme with glowing accents has to clear WCAG AA on every primary text and control; each applied value sits 18 to 30 points of lightness below its core.[1]

Glass

Frosted, Dark, Tinted and Prismatic all carry text at the same light values, so contrast doesn't reset depending on which surface a control lands on.

Material : Glass

Glass is the one material Lumasis does not define on its own terms. It is authored as a Figma tool built on Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines[2], with refraction, depth, dispersion, frost and splay carried as named values rather than approximated by eye, so a designer specifies glass the way the platform specifies it. That is what lets the same pill render on the Dynamic Island and the Lock Screen without being rebuilt for either.

Pill token architecture

{
  "pill": {
    "bg": {
      "default":  { "value": "{color.surface.1}" },
      "hover":    { "value": "{color.surface.2}" },
      "pressed":  { "value": "rgba(255,255,255,0.08)" },
      "disabled": { "value": "rgba(255,255,255,0.03)" }
    },
    "text": {
      "default":  { "value": "{color.ink.primary}" },
      "disabled": { "value": "rgba(255,255,255,0.35)" }
    },
    "radius": { "value": "{radius.pill}" },
    "height": { "value": "{size.pillHeightMd}" },
    "stroke": {
      "width": { "value": "{stroke.hairline}" },
      "color": { "value": "rgba(255,255,255,0.14)" }
    },
    "glass": {
      "blur":                  { "value": "{blur.glassMd}" },
      "specularOpacity":       { "value": 0.55 },
      "innerHighlightOpacity": { "value": 0.18 },
      "chromaticShift":        { "value": "0.6px" }
    }
  }
}

$The glass material authored as a Figma tool — refraction, depth, dispersion, frost, and splay carried as named values in the effects panel rather than approximated by eye.$

References

[1]Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2W3C · contrast minimumDec 2024 ↗ [2]Apple Human Interface GuidelinesApple · Live ActivitiesDec 2025 ↗

Glydways Token Architecture

Brief

01

Perception

Principles

Parameters

Token Architecture

Accessibility

References

Related work