Design Tooling at Scale
How Dropbox migrated to Figma and structured our cross-platform design system.
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The design systems we swim in
Ethan Marcotte
– 6 March 2020
When was the last time a design system empowered you to make a decision about the best way to proceed?
How to avoid 5 of the most common design system mistakes
– 12 February 2020
Leaders from Pinterest, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, Clearleft, and more lay their best advice on the table.
Reimagining design systems at Spotify
Spotify Design
– 16 December 2019
How we build design systems that fit our culture of autonomy.
Building the Constellation Design System
– 29 October 2019
Over the past two years our team has built a design system for Lloyds Banking Group. It’s been an interesting journey; taking a product from small beginnings through to a multi-brand design system with an engaged community.
Bringing the power of styles preprocessing to Sketch
– 24 October 2019
Design tokens is a concept brought to help manage the complexity of modern design systems. It’s a set of ground level rules to follow both for designers and developers.
Design systems are about relationships
Smashing Magazine
– 7 October 2019
Design systems can improve usability, but they can also limit creativity or fall out of sync with actual products. In this article, we’ll explore how designers and developers can create more robust design systems by building a culture of collaboration.
How we’re establishing a new visual language for The Economist
The Economist
– 5 October 2019
We’re creating a design system to establish our visual language. Here’s how we’re doing it, and what we’ve learned so far.
The gradual design system: how we built Slack Kit
Slack
– 12 September 2019
A group of engineers, designers, and writers began to centralize and standardize components. We named it Slack Kit.
Cooperative Design Systems
– 9 September 2019
Strategies for when the goals of your project, team or users diverge from those of an established design system.
Moving From Sketch To Figma: A Case Study Of Migrating Design Systems
– 1 September 2019
Switching tools isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. Here’s a nuts-and-bolts and behind-the-scenes look at how Help Scout migrated design systems from Sketch to Figma — why we made the switch, a step-by-step walkthrough of what it entailed, and what we got out of it.
The Ugly Truth about Design Systems – Mark Boulton (video)
Front Conference Zurich
– 29 August 2019
Design systems are great for scaling design across complex organisations and products. But in our drive for scale, consistency and standards, have we considered the risks and the cost? What are the problems we may face and how can we overcome them?
Best practices for design system naming conventions
– 29 August 2019
A foundational part of your design system is how you choose to name styles and components. Giving your components reasonable—dare I say, consistent—names isn’t just about developers, it’s for your teammates and future designers.
Design Tooling at Scale
Dropbox Design
– 13 August 2019
How Dropbox migrated to Figma and structured our cross-platform design system.
Why a cookie-cutter design system won’t work for your organization
– 11 August 2019
A design system isn’t like a code of ethics. It’s more like a set of company values. It’s good for everyone to share the same ethics. But it’s not necessarily appropriate for every company to share the same values.
A comprehensive guide to design systems
– 23 June 2019
The fundamentals of design systems, how you can build and implement one, and explore examples of organizations that are using them to drive success.
Make the case: How to get buy-in for building a design system
– 2 May 2019
How to start the conversation with stakeholders and get a design system off the ground.
Five years of design systems – a personal journey into scalable design
– 13 July 2017
Welcome to an ongoing series of articles and tutorials that will lead to the creation of a free, open source design system.
The most exciting design systems are boring
Big Medium
– 3 April 2017
Design-system builders should resist the lure of the new. Don’t confuse design-system work with a rebrand or a tech-stack overhaul. The system’s design patterns should be familiar, even boring.
How we're using component based design
We are Heavyweight
– 27 January 2017
Component Based Design is often talked about in context of large, complex projects. In this Article we’re making the case that it can also be very beneficial for smaller projects and teams.