I was working to solve this exact same problem while I was at AWS on the design team from 2012 to 2014. I had spent the previous two years working on the SDK team (2010-2012). I’m a software engineer, who got his start in user experience, so I was able to work on the visual and interaction design with the designers, and then turn around and write the code for it as CSS classes, JavaScript, and components. It was called Plutonium.

Myself and my manager were constantly at odds with the Director in that area of AWS. He had no respect for designers or design, and kept pushing GWT, because he didn’t think web developers even needed to be working at AWS in the first place. We were actively and regularly working with the core Console team, as well as individual engineering teams who were building their specific sub-consoles (EC2, SQS, etc.).

I left in 2014. My manager left in 2015. Even though this doesn’t appear to be a direct extension of our work, this is absolutely a spiritual successor to the project we kick started all those years ago. Congratulations to the people at AWS who continued the good fight, and did what was best for customers against the whims of middle-management.