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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