Principal Design System Designer role | Guest: Andressa Lombardo
This week’s guest is a true treat for me as Andressa was my teacher at an Accessible Design Bootcamp by Memorisely. This was back in the month of love, February of 2022 — and love was indeed found!
Andressa is beyond eloquent when it comes to talking through the emergence and use of Design Systems in our design world. IN this weeks episode we both ogle over the thought of, “how did we design before reusable components?”.
“Design Systems are not the ceiling they are the floor for creative thinking”
This week we have a chunky selection of resources recommended from Andressa. All of which are gems. If you are interested in digging further into Design Systems and around the roles associated, scroll on down for links to these in the ‘Resources’ section of this email .
Our guest
Andressa Lombardo:
- Self proclaimed Design system nerd.
- Role: Principal Design System Designer.
- Born in Brazil, went to college in Italy, spent some time in Manchester, and now I’ve been living in Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪 since.
- Started as a Graphic Designer as an intern, in Italy (where she studied), when moved to Ireland was her first job in digital design.
Current roles:
- Principal Design Systems Designer @Teamwork .
- Teacher @Memorisely (an online school focused on all things design).
- Host & supporter @Into Design System (conferences to help people become better design system experts).
Learnings
What is a Design System?
A design system is a comprehensive set of standards, guidelines, and components used to create a consistent visual and functional experience across digital products. It acts as a centralised source of truth that helps design and development teams maintain coherence in their work, speeding up the design process while ensuring that all aspects of a product’s user interface (UI) align with the company’s brand identity and goals.
- Do not think of it as an asset or something tangible. Think of it as a practice.
- Design Systems vary but essentially they will encompass :
- UI libraries on the design and code side.
- A pattern library (a collection of stories of common user problems we have e.g. have same error dialogue).
- Documentation to tie it together.
- Changing the way people work is the main part of the Design System
“It is a cultural change disguised as a UI library”
Andressa’s ‘IKEA’ analogy
Andressa’s own IKEA analogy worked to help me better understand what a design system is:
“If you build and someone else builds an IKEA cabinet with the IKEA instructions, you will get the same result. But if one of you tries without the IKEA instructions — even though you have the same components, they may look wrong or take way longer to get to same result”
Tips & tricks
Starting out
Bootcamps are a great way in and pick a design system path to go with as there are varying articles and resources of how to do it.
Ability bias
This refers to the tendency to assume that others interact with technology in the same way we do, often overlooking the unique needs and experiences of people with disabilities. We all surfer from ability bias — so it is important to test.
General
- Attend one of The Design Systems meet ups:
- — — Great to meet similar community.
- — — Has a Slack community you can join.
- — — Keep an eye on their LinkedIn, as always events.
- Newsletters — great way to get filtered information catered for you.
- Good to meet people that meet your passion.
- ChatGPT is a great to help write resources.
Shoutouts
- Into Design Systems team:
- — — SIl Bormüller
- — — Romina Kavcic
- — — Samantha (Sam) Gordashko
- Zander — Founder of Memorisely
One from me too:
- Arianna Valentini — who helped me with my Webflow design for my new website.
Resources
Andressa’s ‘go-to’ Design System examples
Design System examples:
- Carbon by IBM.
- Material Design by Google.
- Polaris by Shopify.
- Nord (for Nord Health).
- Gestalt by Pintrest.
‘Lighter’ Design System examples:
- Wise Design (very summarised way of documenting and easy to digest)
- Workbench by Gusto.
N.B. Not all design systems are public. Not everything needs to be a custom solution (like Carbon, Material Design , Polaris, etc.)
Resources:
- The Design Systems Guide (great to get started): It is split into chapters like ‘Where to start’ and will help guide you through the things you need to think of, set up and also provides you with resources including interviews and tips on getting buy in.
- Design Systems Surf (go to database): Reference of public Design Systems.
- Zero Heights: A platform for Design System documentation where you can publish your work if you are not going to create your own custom solution. They also create great content; podcasts, conferences and a lot of research in this field. And they release a document throughout the year.
Newsletters:
Books:
- Mismatch by Kat Holmes (Director of User Experience at Google ) describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion.
- As some of you may know, I love this book. If you are short of time, you can digest it this presentation (30mins).
Want more?
Pop to my website for more episodes and conversations packed with insights and resources to empower you.
