Non Breaking Space Show 130: Nathan Curtis — Deep Foundations of Design Systems

Nathan Curtis co-founded EightShapes in 2006 and is passionate about interaction design, information architecture, and front-end development. He specializes in design systems consulting for teams large and small, regularly writing about and speaking at events worldwide. Co-hosting this week is Micah Godbolt, Senior Design Developer at Microsoft.

Nathan Curtis co-founded EightShapes in 2006 and is passionate about interaction design, information architecture, and front-end development. He specializes in design systems consulting for teams large and small, regularly writing about and speaking at events worldwide. Co-hosting this week is Micah Godbolt, Senior Design Developer at Microsoft.

This episode of Goodstuff Master Audio Feed is sponsored by:


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Time Jumps

2:44 An introduction to Nathan’s background on the web.
3:50 Design systems are just catching.
4:50 What kind of deliverables would you give to clients back in the 2000’s?
7:20 What’s the next step in design systems?
9:40 It seems like we’re going to start quantifying everything we do inside a design system.
10:30 Automation helping generate code from design systems.
13:20 Working with the various javascript frameworks has changed design systems.
14:40 In the future we won’t have design system, we’ll have a system of systems.
19:30 Sharing design systems across large organizations with common components vs niche apps or websites.
21:30 Designers don’t have as much experience working collaboratively in a community environment.
25:00 Designers tend to be silod - what has been your experience?
29:50 In professional settings, designers with seasoning struggle when they aren’t made aware of the design systems.
31:34 Designers are looking to do the right thing.
33:00 Defending the designers.
36:10 Who’s actually controlling the knobs and dials?
38:30 It works but have you tested it on users yet?
45:50 Adding a research tab to the design system that’s available to everyone.
47:20 Sometimes you have to realize one team might have a completely different user base.
50:00 What goes into a system or not?
53:20 What are your tips for people who want to get a design system going?
56:40 How can people find you on the internet and get in design system conversations?

Links:

Christopher Schmitt
Christopher Schmitt on Twitter
Nathan Curtis on Twitter
Nathan Curtis on Medium
Eight Shapes
Micah Godbolt on Twitter
Micah Godbolt
React
NBSP 128 Peter Nowell — SVG Sketch Workflows
Red Hat
Design Systems Slack
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