Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF (back for season two!), where Luke Murphy and Michelle Chin attempt to combat all the amazing wtf in design systems. In each episode, they answer a single question around design system troubles with a Q&A from the live audience.

A bit of a deep topic this week – how important is consistency as a concept to be aiming for with design systems? Obviously, it's one of our design systems' selling points, but in a world where we're moving more and more towards browserless, how important is component consistency, or can we see a place where foundational consistency is all we need?

Show notes

• A List Apart - Design Dialects: Breaking the rules, not the system
• Vinted - Greenhouse

Season 2 Episode 1

Design Systems WTF is the fortnightly podcast where Luke Murphy and Michelle Chin attempt to combat all the amazing wtf in design systems. In each episode, they answer a single question around design system troubles with Q&A from the live audience.

We took a few months off and y'all went and changed everything... We dive into the wonderful world of contextual design systems. Do MCPs finally offer what we need to make our design systems serve information up contextually? Are there major things we need to refactor? Or is it all smoke and mirrors?

Show notes: 

• Knowledge graphs article from Chase
• Luke’s talk on Contextual Documentation
• Converge videos
• DS Live with TJ Pitre
• TJ Pitre on LinkedIn

Selling the value of your design system to folks who don't necessarily understand it is a difficult and thankless task. But are we trying to sell in the right things? Is it possible to put the value of our design system against the bottom line, and how far down the stack can we go? Can we actually put a dollar sign against a single component?

The age old question – should designers know how to code? Or more specifically, how much should designer know when it comes to code? Considering it's the medium that we're designing for, it's still surprising how much this topic splits opinion. Luke and special guest Rob Whitfield will dive into the pros and cons, and give some practical advice if you did want to delve into the witchcraft that engineers do.

Making your design system as inclusive as possible is something that I think we all agree on. However, for most systems teams, this means creating some accessibility guidelines and then ticking it off the list. Is this enough? Is there more we can be doing?

Inspired by Luke's article on the death of design systems, Michelle and Luke dive into whether design systems have a future... are we at a natural point of evolution or are design systems going to go the way of the dinosaurs?

How big is too big? Is there a point where your design system just becomes unwieldy? Luke and Michelle dive into this question from a previous episode, and try and figure out how you keep your design system to a manageable size. Or is that just a nice problem to have, and we should embracing our systems to grow to the size they need to be?

Detach instance is a concept that has stuck fear into the hearts of design systems folks since the beginning. However, there are definitely instances where it’s totally ok to snowflake components! How should you deal with snowflakes in your system? How does this play into your overall view on flexibility, and can you actually use snowflakes as a way to determine what you should be working on?

Sometimes we may feel the urge to include everything in our documentation, to the point where it rivals Lord of the Rings for length and density. However, we may be doing ourselves a disservice! How much is too much documentation? How much is not enough documentation? Do we even need documentation at all? join us for the last Design Systems WTF of the year!

Design systems should sit in the design team. Design systems should sit in the designops team. Design systems should sit in their own team. There are so many different options that are presented as the ‘truth’ when it comes to design systems and org design. Michelle and Luke are going to wade through the options, weigh up their merits and probably tear the entire thing down to the ground by the end of the half hour.

Infinite scroll was designed to enhance the UX for browsing search results, but now it's often used to keep users endlessly engaged on social media. As concerns grow about its impact on mental health, especially among young people, it's time to reconsider its place in design systems. What responsibilities do we have as creators when our components contribute to these issues? In this episode, we’ll examine the ethical considerations of infinite scroll and other components, exploring how we can design more responsibly and promote healthier user experiences.

Design systems are often hailed as the ultimate productivity boosters for devs and designers alike, but do they really deliver on that promise? We’ll explore whether design systems genuinely make teams more efficient or if they just add another layer of complexity. Tune in for a reality check on the true impact of design systems on team performance!

Contribution often seems like the perfect solution for scaling design systems, but is it really? We'll weigh the tough realities of managing contributions and why a federated system might not suit everyone. We'll explore the hurdles of contribution and how to decide if it's the right path for your team.

Luke and Michelle come to you direct from Converge to talk about AI (again). Is there a place for AI in our design systems? 

If you're struggling to get contributions to your design system, you might think it’s a governance issue. But it might not be the real issue. In this episode, we'll consider why people aren't contributing and examine factors beyond governance that might be preventing contributions. We’ll discuss the motivations and barriers that impact participation and how to foster a thriving contributor community.

We're cutting through the AI hype and getting to the good stuff—practical ways AI can supercharge your design system. From streamlining workflows to generating documentation, we'll explore real-world applications of AI that can make your life easier. Plus, we’ll guide you through creating a custom GPT to assist with your design system needs. Are you leveraging AI to its full potential, or are you stuck in the buzzword bubble? Join us for insights and strategies to make AI work for you!

In this episode, we’re challenging the status quo of design systems by questioning the necessity of components. Are we too focused on building and maintaining a library of components when we should be thinking bigger? What if our obsession with components is actually holding back innovation? Join us as we explore whether it’s time to shift our attention away from components and consider new ways to build flexibility, scalability, and creativity into our design systems.

In this episode, we’re focusing on patterns, the often-overlooked pillar of your design system. Why should we focus on patterns more than components? Are your components really as reusable as you think, or are they just static building blocks without a solid pattern to guide them? 

In this episode, we explore the enigma that is design system versioning. How do we make sense of versioning? How do you sync versions between code, design, and documentation? Maybe it’s easier to ignore versioning, but at what cost? 

AI tools are transforming the landscape, making it easier than ever to create and design. Is this making everyone a designer? Will design system makers have to herd even more cats? We’ll be joined by special guest Pablo Stanley, the brilliant co-founder of two AI-based design tools, Musho and Lummi. We’ll unpack the potential of AI-based design tools and some risks. 

In this episode, we’re diving into the buzzworthy announcements and new feature releases that have the design community talking. We’ll share our opinions and insights on how these changes will impact design systems and workflows. Whether you missed the event or want a fresh perspective, tune in to catch up on all the highlights and WTF moments from Config!

We tackle the fundamental question: “How do you prove the value of design systems?” What kind of metrics work? Why does the math seem so fuzzy? Are there any valid measurements? Based on our experiences and what we’ve seen with other teams, we share our thoughts and hot takes when it comes to advocating and validating your design system efforts.

We navigate the challenges and uncertainties that arise when a design system team undergoes downsizing or restructuring. How do the design system team and teams who use the design system cope in this situation? We explore strategies for resilience, collaboration, and innovation in the face of adversity and discover how to thrive amidst organizational changes.

In this episode, we answer some interesting design system questions from the Internet. With Luke away, Dave, our Developer Advocate, will joins Michelle. Sharing insights from a developer and designer perspective, respectively. Will Dave and Michelle see eye to eye or will we agree to disagree?

Figma is currently dominating the design landscape and with good reason. They’ve taken what we’ve done with product and UX design and allowed us to do so much more than we used to be able to. With the release and continued improvement of Dev Mode, they’re hoovering up more use cases and raising the question: are we happy with a design tool being the source of truth for all product teams?