Over two days, the Clarity 2023 design systems conference brought together presentations on a variety of topics, including why we should leverage browser standards (1, 2) and invest in accessibility (1, 2, 3), understanding that perfection is not the goal of a design system (1), how we can leverage a diverse variety of voices for better UX (1), and proposing new ways of categorizing design tokens (1). It also included how to understand the business-end stakeholders (1) and plan roadmaps together (1).
This was my impression of Erika Hall’s “The Business Model is the Grid” presentation.
Design is only as humane as the business model allows and rewards
Erika gave a lot of “real talk” about how the business approaches product design — which impacts the need for design systems. She talked about three UX myths:
- Myth: A good experience is good for the user
- Myth: A good experience is good for business
- Myth: A good experience is good
Creators (designers, engineers, writers) are trained to make the best experiences for the users. The goals include performant, easy, accessible, and beautiful experiences on any device. Meanwhile, the business side wants to drive revenue and growth. Where these two things align, design can flourish!
My commentary: We may see this in the progression of an app. At first, the app is rough and has disjointed UX. Over time, the push for better product experiences happens as the app gathers market share. The design captures the market’s attention, and quality-of-life improvements keep users inside the system. In the later stages, as Erika notes, it is more about the extraction of value — especially as the business goals shift to the needs of the investors.
A design system should evolve. In the beginning, your organization can rally around design system principles such as encouraging consistency, thinking inclusively, and looking for opportunities for reuse. As your app scales up, you may pull patterns together and improve the design system libraries for velocity. In the more mature stages, you can take a fresh look at the design system to see if a system of systems is better or add multi-theme support.
Business is less rational than design
The business places bets and attempts to make data-driven decisions. However the data is often messy and might not fit the data model. Then, the business tries to understand how to get more value out of the user: sometimes profit rises with user satisfaction, or sometimes profit rises because of the opposite. And sometimes profit is not the only metric we should look at.
Additionally, as Erika says in her slides: “we think about orgs like static grids, [but] organization are intersecting relationships based on conversations.” She suggests that to elevate the visibility of your design system and understand how leadership thinks about it, you should map the relationships and the power flows in the organization.
My commentary: One of the key insights I took away from the talk: stories are more powerful than data. That is, we can choose almost any metric we want to “move the needle,” it’s a case of selecting the best data and creating a story around it. As design system professionals, we can educate the business on how they can use more inclusive metrics.
Also, a design system that is too rigid risks not adapting to the ebb and flow of the business. To ensure the design system remains relevant you must find ways to keep a pulse on the stories being told. And that means creating relationships across your organization beyond the direct consumers of your design system. How can the design system be part of the stories currently being told? How does it change while staying true to its principles? How can it help augment the data where applicable?
Sketch notes by Raquel
Follow Raquel: https://medium.com/@raquel
Thanks to Erika Hall for the use of her slide materials and her review. You can find out more about her on the Mule Design site.
