Design system decisions without authority are just guesses Why capturing authority changes what a design system can learn from its own deviations

Design system decisions without authority are just guesses
shorturl.at/8WH8q

I think I just built my first real product 😭 A small experiment in making invisible design decisions visible

What if design system “violations” were just decisions we forgot to capture?

I built a small Figma plugin to test that in practice.

hostyurl.us/YTK8UN

Did they skip office hours?   Did they ignore the documentation? It’s easy to think that’s the problem. Decisions happen in the moment, when someone needs to move forward: in Figma, in code, or in… ... Did they skip office hours?   Did they ignore the documentation? It’s easy to think that’s the problem. Decisions happen in the moment, when someone needs to move forward: in Figma, in code, or in a...

I’ve been exploring this as “authority collapse” and building a small prototype around it: url-shortener.me/J5G6

The perceived cost of delay is higher than breaking a design system constraint.

So decisions keep happening.

The system just doesn’t remember them.

Beyond the Monolith: Authority Architecture for AI-Native Systems Part 2 of a three-part series on Authority Architecture

I have family in Iran, so I think a lot about how technology shapes real-world decisions.

“Human in the loop” sounds reassuring. But when systems move at machine speed, humans can quietly become observers.

The real question: can they still say no?

Authority Architecture: Designing Governance for AI-Native Systems Part 1 of a three-part series on Authority Architecture

AI is entering decision loops.

Ownership of those decisions is getting blurry.

I call this authority collapse.

New essay on Authority Architecture ↓

medium.com/@pgh.ahmadi/...

A Slot for the Human in the System When John Nash stood before a window covered in equations, he wasn’t just solving problems — he was building a world.

Perfection is brittle; doubt is durable.

My latest piece on ethical systems: medium.com/@pgh.ahmadi/...

Thank you! 🙏

Been writing more about UXistentialism on Medium if you’d like to dig deeper 👉🏻 shorturl.at/OBm8K

“Let’s make tech a bit more human.”

That’s what I mean by UXistentialism: designing patterns that support autonomy, clarity, and authenticity, while embracing the limits and messiness of being human in a world that often feels chaotic and absurd.

Hi 👋 Finally joined Bluesky! I know some of the design systems folks are here. Would love to connect and swap ideas. #designsystems