Have you heard about design systems? It's a catchy concept that's been getting quite some attention lately from our friends at the digital UX community. And I think we as a service design community can get a lot of value out of it as well!

Here's my simple understanding of a design system...

The main idea is that a design system provides you with a standardised set of components and patterns. This standardised set allows you to deliver results more efficiently and with more consistency.

In an online environment a component might be a button and a pattern might be the steps in the ordering process.

Now I hear you thinking... I don't work with buttons and checkout flows. So how can I as a service designer benefit from a design system?

That exactly the question I had as well!

Fortunately, good friend of the Show and design systems ninja, Dan Mall was willing to come on and lay it all out for us.

--- [ GUIDE ] -—

00:00 Welcome to episode 116
02:05 Who is Dan
03:45 Getting started with design systems
07:30 The use case for design systems
11:00 Where does a design system live
14:30 Design systems for services
18:30 Where to start
26:30 Patterns and components
31:15 Finding the right balance
33:45 Design sytems are culture
36:30 Systems as word
39:00 Who's job is it
41:30 Reasons why design systems don't get adopted
44:30 How to sell a design system
47:00 It's an ongoing journey
49:00 Recommended resources
50:50 Final thoughts

--- [ LINKS ] ---

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/danmall/
* https://superfriendlydesign.systems/
* https://superfriendlydesign.systems/classes/make-design-systems-people-want-to-use/
* https://bigmedium.com/ideas/boring-design-systems.html
* https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/products/design-systems-by-alla-kholmatova
* https://abookapart.com/products/expressive-design-systems
* Thinking in Systems: A Primer - https://amzn.to/2WITxgx

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