"What most designers get wrong about design systems"
I landed on that title for my 🤿 Deep Dive with @danmall because he really challenged some of my previous ideas...
Here are a few golden nuggets that really stood out from the chat 👇
If you want to listen to the full episode, all of the streaming links are below 👇
(otherwise, keep reading for some of my favorite takeaways)
dive.club/deep-dives/dan-mall
1) Most people approach atomic design backward
The right way is to build the big thing first.... then take it apart to identify the little pieces (not vice versa)
2) In two years we'll be talking about design systems MORE...
But then in 5 years, we won't talk about them at all 👀
Because it'll become too obvious (just like we stopped talking about responsive design)
3) Figma variables have made it too easy to create tokens
Lots of teams are going to get themselves in sticky situations if they're not careful 😬
4) Too many people wait for official buy-in to start building a design system.
Dan thinks more designers should be “rascals” and start building one on their own… then ask for buy-in to CONTINUE it 😉
5) How we should measure success of our design systems:
❌ Adoption (typical metric)
✅ How often the design systems team is invited to product kickoff meetings
6) You should only become a design systems specialist if you want to be a COLLECTOR not a CREATOR 🤔
7) The best design systems teams don't look for opportunities to grow the system...
They look for ways to REMOVE components 👀
Dan also shares a ton of interesting ideas on AI and more broadly where design systems are headed next...
If you're into that sort of thing then you'll love this episode 👇
dive.club/deep-dives/dan-mall
Btw, we share key takeaways like this every Thursday to 10k+ designers 👀
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dive.club/deep-dives