📝 Articles
What I learned from making my own design system
PJ explores the critical lessons learned from creating their own design system, highlighting the importance of experiential understanding over theoretical knowledge. They discuss the challenges of integrating a design system in mature projects, managing breaking changes, and the benefits of simplicity, advocating for a practical approach that aligns closely with user needs and workflows.
The Great Reorganization
Gabe discusses the process of overhauling a design system at CarMax, referred to as "The Great Reorganization," to address issues of divergence and inefficiency. They outline the steps taken to reuse and reorganize existing components, streamline communication, and gain buy-in from teams, ultimately creating a more functional and widely adopted design system, Horizon, that better supports both designers and developers.
Comparing design systems to find the best qualities
Hidde explores the idea of creating a global design system by comparing and identifying the best qualities of UI components, rather than just building standard components. They argue that by focusing on what makes components solid, accessible, and effective, developers across different organisations can benefit from shared insights, ultimately leading to better, more universally applicable design practices.
Define your Rock-Solid Design System Components
The team at Bridge The Gap emphasises the importance of thoroughly defining components in a design system, especially for remote and diverse teams. By detailing components from the start, they enhance communication, streamline development, and create reliable, scalable components that meet both design and functional requirements, ensuring long-term success and easier maintenance.
🤘 Community
Zeroheights 2024 Design System Report Survey!
Those fine folks from zeroheight are doing it again. It's time to answer questions for their 2024 Design Systems report. Let's see where we are, what we can improve and where we're going as a community.
🧰 Tools / Resources
Design System Planner
From Lisa Demchenko, this Notion template is a user-friendly tool designed to help design teams manage their projects efficiently. For €15, it offers strategic planning, task management, customisable roadmaps, and guides, making it easier to keep everyone aligned and productive. This template helps to simplify the process of building and maintaining a design system, helping your team stay organised and on track, boosting collaboration, and ensuring project success.
🔗 Links
Top 10 Government Design Systems: Enhancing Digital Public Services
I love pouring over the details and differences various government Design Systems teams include on their documentation sites. The folks at Supernova give us 10 to look at from this page.
Katie Langerman on X: "Design systems work is very serious
I think every new item added to your Design System deserves its own "sales video" like this from Katie and the folks at GitHub Primer.