When design systems first became standard in digital product teams, they solved a clear problem
Posts by The Design Systems Horse, est: 2008
Categorising and naming tokens is HARD
A design token is not a button.
Somewhere around 2015, the design community decided that “design systems” were the answer to every problem.
Designers work in Figma. Engineers work in code. Handoff
In the early days, tokens seemed like magic.
Design systems industrialize design. That’s a fact
designers were detaching components at an alarming rate
digital products never reach the stage where a design system becomes necessary
design tokens have emerged
As design systems become more complex, the role of the design system designer is evolving.
Some people talk about design systems.
In practice, design tokens have become the new meetings
At some point, every UI designer runs into a similar problem, running out of usable colors.
Design tokens might sound like trendy jargon
this opens the door to some design system utopia
Design systems are so much more than tokens! (and components)
deliriously happy with my figma / design tokens
Design tokens are basically design decisions
Design systems were built for a world where humans made every pixel by hand.
Design systems used to be about components. Now, they’re about control.
Design systems were supposed to free us.
Design systems promise order; a single source of truth, a shared language, a tidy world of reusable components. But beneath all that structure lies something so much messier
Design tokens aren’t just a bridge between design and code, they are THE BRIDGE.
Design tokens aren't just about consistency; they're about efficiency too!
Design tokens promised to end the maintenance nightmare
Does Accessibility Really Matter? (Yes.)
Design Tokens, eh? It all used to be so simple...
Design Systems have been for years our visual bibles
To be honest, I was a smidge skeptical. I know what a design token is