Tent Talks Featuring: Nathan Curtis

Critical Processes in Design Systems:

Emphasis on building from a library of UI components and visual language.Importance of collaboration between designers and developers.The notion of a design system as a product serving products, requiring evolution, roadmap, support, and marketing.

Strategic Planning for Design Systems:

Life cycles of design systems as generations, each with its focus and operational mode.The necessity of strategic periods, production processes, and shifts to business-as-usual modes.Prioritization of initiatives and the balance between major investments and ongoing feature development.

Contributions to Design Systems:

Challenges with the conventional approach to contributions.Advocating for a shift from central governance to facilitating direct sharing and reuse among teams.Success stories of changing perspectives on contributions leading to more effective collaboration and system growth.

Evolution of Design Systems:

Higher levels of rigor and formality in design system teams compared to product teams.The influence of design systems on establishing effective work practices and fostering cultures of critique.The importance of adaptability, experimentation, and less formal rigor in design systems.

Emerging Trends and Technologies:

The imminent impact of AI and automation on design systems.The future emphasis on composition skills and the importance of understanding nested structures and layouts.The need for design professionals to adapt to tools that automate previously manual tasks.

Notable Quotes

"A design system is a product serving products.""Contributions is a bit of a bad word in design systems.""The best design systems are the ones that know how to change and evolve.""AI is right around the corner, impacting design systems significantly."

Reference Materials

Blog post by Nathan Curtis titled "A Design System is a Product Serving Products" (2016).

About Tent Talks

Chicago Camps hosts irregularly scheduled Tent Talks with people from all across the User Experience Design community, and beyond. Who really likes limits, anyway--If it's a cool idea, we'd love to hear about it and share it!

What is a Tent Talk? That's a great question, we'd love to tell you.

Tent Talks are short-form in nature, generally lasting from 10-20 minutes (ish) in a recorded format--we like to think of them as "S'mores-sized content" because that's pretty on-brand. Tent Talks can be a presentation on a topic, a live Q&A session about the work we do, or the work around the work we do, or really just about anything--we don't want to limit ourselves, or you.

You should send along an idea or topic of your own so we can learn from you, as well! You don't have to be a published author or a professional speaker on a circuit to be good at your job, so please, put yourself forward, and let's have some fun, talk, and share your experience with others!