Design System Pitfalls & How to Escape Them
summary
Design systems are built by extracting components from real product work not by guessing UI kits alone; a lightweight audit finds 8 categories and shows team workflow causes ~20 of the common questions while assets and tooling account for 1%. Use pilots (3–4 week scopes) scored on 8 criteria, harvest things like the Seton Hill vertical tabs component when it proves useful, treat the system as a product (marketing, campaigns, docs), aim for ~80% coverage, and pair designers and engineers with fast handoffs (Hot Potato) to keep it alive.
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chapters (41)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:38The Cooking Hypothesis
- 1:52Introduction
- 2:12Twitter Poll
- 2:48Design System Definition
- 3:37Design System Components
- 5:38Design System Diagnostic
- 5:55Design System Categories
- 6:47Design System Questions
- 7:57How to Get People to Use Your Design System
- 8:27Unexpected Kindness
- 9:35Best Design System Opportunities
- 10:48Biggest Design System Pitfall
- 12:11Getting It Out of Your System
- 14:45Design System Example
- 15:06From Degrees to Careers
- 15:39Campus Life
- 16:00Upcoming Events
- 17:39How Normies Make Design Systems
- 19:11Criteria
- 24:46Criticism
- 25:01Most Exciting Design Systems
- 25:16Design Systems are Containers
- 25:51Brian Powell
- 26:59The invention
- 29:55Tim BernersLee
- 30:38Designers vs Engineers
- 31:09The Gift of Fire
- 32:05Two Short Videos
- 33:44Jordan Singer
- 35:13Natural Language Processing
- 36:22Hot Potato Process
- 37:39Andys Brick Shop
- 40:57Reference Sites
- 41:59Design Systems for People
- 42:36Dan Mall QA
- 46:54Too Late
- 48:38Scaling
- 50:37Dustiness
- 57:21Coverage
- 59:58Solving Problems
