📝 Articles
Linting Your Design Tokens - The What And The Why
In my article, I highlight the significance of linting design tokens to maintain the integrity and consistency of design systems. I explain how linting can prevent common issues such as broken references and naming inconsistencies, which often lead to technical debt. By integrating linting into various stages of the design workflow, teams can catch issues early and ensure that their design tokens remain reliable. I advocate for a structured approach to linting that supports both developers and designers, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of the design system.
How to build a design system strategy you'll actually deliver
Amy outlines how to build a practical design system strategy by identifying context-specific problems, mapping user groups, and focusing on three prioritised areas for the next six months. She emphasises that good strategies are collaborative, living documents, and recommends under-promising and over-delivering against realistic commitments to build credibility with peers and leadership.
Governing Accessible Design Systems in the AI Era
Anna discusses the critical relationship between AI and accessibility in design systems, asserting that the real challenge lies in governance rather than tooling. They outline six essential questions to ensure design systems can effectively host AI without exacerbating existing accessibility issues. By focusing on design biases, ownership of AI outputs, and user preferences, Anna emphasises the need for a structured approach that prioritises accessibility and user agency, ultimately advocating for intentional integration of AI within well-governed design systems.
👀 Interesting Reads
Components Are Dead
Luis discusses the evolving role of components in design systems amidst the rise of AI-generated code. They highlight that while components have traditionally been essential for maintaining consistency, the focus should now shift to the underlying tokens that govern design decisions. As AI enables faster product development, the risk of creating unnecessary complexity increases. They suggest that a robust semantic token set may be sufficient for ensuring consistency and accessibility, even if multiple versions of a component exist in the codebase.
How AI helped us make sense of hundreds of components
Alex shares how AI was used to audit and organise components for a large UK higher education institution's design system. They highlight the challenge of numerous similar components existing without clear documentation. By employing an AI-driven audit tool, the team quickly identified patterns and facilitated decision-making on which components to keep, merge, or retire. Alex emphasises that, while AI sped up the process, human expertise remained crucial for evaluating outputs.
10 common component architecture mistakes in Figma design systems (and what to do instead)
Alice outlines ten common mistakes in component architecture within Figma design systems and provides guidance on how to avoid them. She emphasises the importance of clear naming conventions, separating themes from modes, and ensuring components are built with accessibility in mind. By understanding tool constraints and implementing best practices, teams can enhance workflows and foster greater confidence in their design systems.
🛠 Tutorials
Designing with breakpoints and design tokens in Penpot
Laura demonstrates how to implement responsive design using breakpoints and design tokens in Penpot, creating a single flexible board that adapts across viewport sizes. By organising token sets for each breakpoint and establishing themes that enable and disable these sets, designers can maintain consistent typographic scales and spacing without duplicating designs. This approach streamlines collaboration between design and development whilst ensuring responsive behaviour is clearly documented in the token structure itself.
🎧 🎥 📊 Audio / Video / Slides
Design systems anarchy ft. Lauren LoPrete
Lauren LoPrete draws parallels between punk rock venues and design systems, arguing that gatekeeping and control undermine both. She advocates for setting clear principles, lowering barriers to contribution, and trusting teams to use systems creatively, much like iconic venues such as CBGB, the Haçienda, and 924 Gilman enabled musicians to experiment and innovate. By shifting from managing systems to nurturing culture, design system teams can create the conditions for experimentation and craft to flourish.
Thanks
That's a wrap for this issue, thanks so much for being here. 🙏 If you'd like to support the newsletter, buying me a coffee is always appreciated. I also write about Design Systems and front-end development over at alwaystwisted.com and if you'd like to say hi, come find me on LinkedIn. 👋
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