The Design System Guide (Romina Kavcic)

Phillip Lovelace is a Senior UX developer at Kajabi. He is passionate about design systems, user experience, web development, product design, and optimizing website performance. Highly enjoys crafting unique and forward-thinking user interfaces using well-structured markup and styling across desktop and mobile platforms. Phillip has over 20 years of experience in understanding and developing products from concept ideas into production and a strong background in search engine optimization (SEO) and website performance. Takeaways:

• Web Components
• Leadership played a key role
• Communication is key and it can be tough."
• Versioning strategy
• Naming things is hard
• Moving too fast can cause mistakes
• Preparation and maintenance for a rebrand.
• Understanding design tokens is vital for consistency
• Cross-functional teams, why
• Linting

🌍 Official Website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/interview-phillip-lovelace

Taylor is a North Carolina-based multidisciplinary creative and community builder that’s passionate about people, design, and all the intersections in between. He has a burning desire to collaborate with others to create exceptional work for people who give a shit.

With nearly a decade’s worth of experience, Taylor currently spends his workdays leading the next evolution of the Mayo Clinic’s design system program. Previous roles include a variety of in-house positions within the management consulting realm, ad-tech, and HBO all focusing on brand and marketing maturation, as well as leading fintech UX projects, contributing to and consulting for established design systems, and leading design standardization and operations efforts. 

Takeaways

• The pilot program focuses on testing a small set of components.

• Learning from other departments can streamline processes.

• User testing is integrated into the design process at Mayo Clinic.

• Privacy and security are paramount in healthcare design.

• The design system is built on a foundation of research and data.

• All about three-week sprints 

• The approach emphasizes code as the source of truth.

• Engaging with the community enhances design system relevance.

• Healthcare is evolving with AI, improving patient outcomes.

• Sentiment analysis helps align design with user needs.

• Work-life balance is crucial in remote work environments.

• Tools

__________🌍 Official Website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/interview-taylor-cashdan💎 My weekly design system newsletter: https://learn.thedesignsystem.guide/

Interview with Alexander Fandén, Agoda's Design System Lead. He leads a 17-member team supporting over 7,000 employees. We explored managing a mature design system and keeping it effective. Our discussion covered: 🔹 The need for internal education to promote the design system. 🔹 How seven years of work shaped Agoda's design system. 🔹 The importance of A/B testing for design changes. 🔹 Balancing standard components with the need for customization. 🔹 A special boot camp to onboard new designers. 🔹 The value of clear naming in design. 🔹 The role of intuition in design decisions. 🔹 What is active adoption? And so much more… Tools mentioned: 🔗 Airtable: Airtable.com 🔗 Gitbook 🌎 Official website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/intervi...

Guy Segal is a design leader with over 25 years of experience in the tech industry. He specializes in UX, product design, and DesignOps. He is the Director of Design + Design Systems at Thomson Reuters.Leveraging his passion for design leadership and people management, Guy has a proven track record of fostering innovation and collaboration within design teams, establishing and nurturing design practices, and leading teams to success.Guy’s expertise extends to various domains, including product, UX, and service design, as well as a strong web and UI development background.In recent years, Guy has focused extensively on designing systems, establishing and growing teams around the practice, and launching systems that optimize efficiency and enhance user experiences.🌍 Official Website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/interview-guy-segal🔗 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guysegal/🟢 About Thomson ReutersEmployees: 25K+Thomson Reuters is a global information and news services company formed in 2008 through the merger of Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group. It is headquartered in Toronto and provides professional information services across legal (Westlaw), tax and accounting, news (Reuters), and corporate compliance sectors. The company operates in over 100 countries on a subscription-based model. It has been transforming from traditional publishing to a technology-driven information provider with increasing investments in AI and digital solutions.🔥 Takeaways* Thomson Reuters is a global company with diverse applications.* Saffron was developed to unify various design systems.* Who are the design system ambassadors * Design is 90% communication.* Prioritizing user needs* Adoption strategies* Training and documentation * The future of design systems * Managing expectations with design systems* Commitment to Accessibility* Measuring success and adoption💎 Tools and useful resources mentioned* Figma* Design tokens* Surveys* Front-end code scanning💎 My weekly design system newsletter: https://learn.thedesignsystem.guide/

Valentin Grudnik is a Design System Lead @Better. Building components and collaborating with designers and developers from product teams to push the Better Design System into use in the most complex applications in the healthcare domain.-----Key Highlights:* Better is a healthcare IT company * The design system evolved from a conceptual video* Accessibility standards are crucial* Design tokens were developed through workshops and collaboration with stakeholders.* Automation, AI* Product teams and user testing* Problems with Angular* Measuring design system success is essential.* Encouraging component use__________🌍 Official Website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/interview-valentin-grudnik💎 My weekly design system newsletter: https://learn.thedesignsystem.guide/

Interview with Raquel Pereira, Lead UX designer (Design Systems) at Nokia 🔥 🙌 Takeaways: 🔹 Nokia is providing network solutions. 🔹 Maintaining consistency. 🔹 Collaboration between designers and developers 🔹 Documentation and communication are key challenges 🔹 Prioritizing components, organizing design files 🔹 Using design tokens vs variables 🔹 Figma Analytics 🔹 A design system is not just a local library 🔹 Understanding user needs 🔹 Complexity is easy; simplicity is the challenge. 🔹 You don't have to depend on tools. Useful tools mentioned: 🔗 Main Website: nokia.com 🔗 Friends of Figma Portugal: https://friends.figma.com/portugal/ 🔗 Supernova https://www.supernova.io/ 🔗 Storybook: storybook.js.org 🔗 Tokens Studio https://tokens.studio/ 🔗 Figma Analytics 🌎 Official website: https://thedesignsystem.guide/interview-raquel-pereira

Tiago Almeida is a design systems expert currently working at Volvo. With a background in industrial design, Tiago brings a unique perspective to bridging the gap between design and engineering. He is passionate about collaboration, accessibility, and using tools like Figma to craft scalable and efficient design systems. Tiago has a wealth of experience from managing component inventories to implementing design tokens, tackling challenges in naming conventions, and ensuring seamless onboarding for new designers. He’s also deeply invested in the future of design systems, exploring AI, automation, and community engagement to push the boundaries of the field. Takeaways: 🚗 How design systems drive efficiency at Volvo. 🤝 Collaboration between design and engineering is critical. 🎨 Mastering component naming and management in Figma. 🔑 Stakeholder buy-in can make or break a design system. 📐 Design tokens are essential for consistency across platforms. 🌍 The role of AI and automation in the future of design systems. 📚 Onboarding strategies for new designers. 🌟 The importance of community and mentorship in design. 🌍 Official Website 💎 My weekly design system newsletter 🔗 Follow me on LinkedIn

Robin Di Capua is UX Lead (Design Systems) at Swisscom. After getting a bachelor's in computer science and a master's in digital design, he has worked as a designer for almost 16 years. After working in a startup for the first 6.5 years, he joined Swisscom, the biggest telecommunication company in Switzerland. After being a consumer and then a contributor to the design system, he took the role of UX Lead for the design system team for the last 3.5 years. 💎 About Swissom Company size: 19’000+Design teams: around 60 designers spread across multiple teams/departments (B2C, B2B, Brand, Entertainment, Infrastructure)Design System team size: 6 full-time + 2 interns at the momentPeople using design system (or team using design system): 700+ people between devs and designers, plus external agencies______________🤩 Key Takeaways:🔹 Why design systems aren't what most people think they are🔹 How to sell the idea of the design system in a large organization🔹 The controversial truth about "design by committee"🔹 How design systems expose uncomfortable organizational realities🔹 The hidden skill gap between product designers and system designers🔹 Why federated models often fail despite good intentions🔹 The untapped potential of AI in design system workflows🔹 Maintaining system vision amid competing team demands🔹 What Robin would change if he could go back in time

Davy is a Product Design Lead at Enterprise Tooling Design System. His operational mastery has streamlined the design process, from documentation to release, enhancing product quality and user experience. Davy has significantly improved design component adoption and efficiency through qualitative research and quantitative metrics. He's the accessibility champion, setting standards for inclusivity and usability in design. With a knack for navigating business transitions and a dedication to design excellence, Davy's leadership over the past two years has not only fostered team growth but has also set a new benchmark in design system management. His blend of technical skill, strategic thinking, and a positive team approach makes him an invaluable asset to Meta. Takeaways: 🌟 Internal design systems vs consumer facing 🛠️ Custom security-first tools ⭐️ Design tokens 🤖 AI handles the boring stuff 🧩 File performance and how to make it better 🔍 Kill unused components 👥 Fixatons + Hackathons are surprisingly effective 🎯 One core system, many more others

🌍 Official Website 💎 My weekly design system newsletter: https://learn.thedesignsystem.guide/