Design Dialogues with Petr Novák
Petr Novak is our UI & Design System manager at Emplifi. In our Product Design team, he manages a team of four UI designers while leading and developing our beloved Soul Design System. With his DesignOPS team, he’s on a mission to create, refine, and perfect UI across Emplifi products.
In the debut interview of our Design Dialogues blog series, Petr chats about all things design, Figma, the future of design systems — and even shares his secrets to designing the perfect pizza dough.
How did you first become interested in pursuing a career in design?
During my time in middle school, I enjoyed programming, which formed my passion. When I was 15, I coded and designed my first website. It was really simple but I enjoyed it a lot, especially problem-solving in code. That’s why I chose programming as part of my high school program, where I also studied graphic design. And my passion for detail? That probably developed during my technical drawing class twenty years ago, where the principle was to learn how to draw blueprints for technical machinery.
How did your interest evolve toward UI and design systems?
UI has always been a part of my job throughout my career. I’ve always enjoyed drilling into every pixel. But the real shift came a few years ago when I had the chance to rebuild our design library after we transitioned from using Sketch to Figma. This moved me fully into the UI design space, a great discipline with so many interesting areas.
As for the design system, I created my first one about 12 years ago when I worked in an agency where we developed CRM software. Then, after a few years of focusing on product design, I returned to the world of design systems when, in Emplifi, I got the opportunity to build a team focusing on design systems and UI.
Developers using the design system are about 25% more productive than those who don’t.
In your current team, you manage the Soul Design System, a.k.a. the foundation of the Emplifi product experience. For those who are unfamiliar, why is a design system so essential?
The design system helps provide a better and more consistent user experience across the product. It also helps with maintenance, as a design system team (my DesignOps team, in this case) owns these components and is responsible for them.
With the Soul Design System, our product designers can focus more on problem-solving instead of designing components and UI. We also know that Soul saves time for our developers — our latest research shows that developers using the design system are about 25% more productive than those who don’t.
What has been your biggest challenge in developing and maintaining the Soul Design System?
Showing the value of the design system is the hardest part, not only for me but also for all people involved in the Soul initiative. The second challenge is managing priorities and finding the space to design new components or maintain current ones.
Don’t be afraid to go a few steps back to start over or choose a different approach.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone struggling with implementing a design system?
I would advise taking baby steps. Don’t try to tackle and solve every potential design problem at once. Start small with manageable pieces that can be easily and continuously implemented. At the same time, keep a diary for these pieces — a brief documentation that can continuously evolve as the components grow.
Also, form a group of designers and developers to discuss priorities and collect feedback. This can increase the adoption of the design system and demonstrate progress at the same time, helping it grow faster.
And lastly, don’t be afraid to go a few steps back to start over or choose a different approach. It can often be more effective and cost-efficient than relentlessly pushing hard in the same direction.
Figma is the design standard, and no tool can replace it right now.
How do you see the future of design systems evolving?
I expect something like a “global design system,” a unified and open design system owned by W3C or a similar organization, to deliver a library of foundational components and set the basic level for other systems, especially in terms of usability and accessibility.
Soul Design System is primarily operated via Figma. Why Figma and not another tool?
Figma is the design standard, and no tool can replace it right now. I like Penpot and am curious about their journey, but I can’t imagine moving easily from Figma. On the other hand, Figma has and will have great features according to the updates the company announced in Config2024.
But Figma is just one of the tools we use. For design system documentation, we use Supernova, and the components are present in Storybook.
Outside of Emplifi, you also teach the Figma A to Z course at Skvot. How’s it going, and what can people expect from the course if they’re interested?
This course was a big step out of my comfort zone and a nice challenge, both of which I welcomed and enjoyed. The course itself is designed to teach students the fundamentals of the Figma app through a small design project example. In each lesson, we focus on different parts of the app and learn how to use and design in Figma. We have already run two sessions and the third one will open soon.
What are the common mistakes you see beginner designers make when using Figma, and how can they avoid them?
I find the lack of organization in files to be the most frustrating aspect, especially when working in a team. Not all designers take the time to name pages, sections, or layers properly in an effort to save time. Unfortunately, this results in more time being spent later by the rest of the team trying to locate the elements they need. But this issue isn’t limited to beginners; it’s a common problem among designers in general.
“If you start to feel comfortable in your position, wake up.”
But you’re not just a designer, you’re also a manager. What’s the biggest challenge when managing your team’s workflow and productivity?
The biggest challenge for me was letting go of my ego. The transition from “designer” to “design lead” opened up a new level of challenges for me. One of the hardest ones was letting my designers find their own way of solving problems and being there for them to give valuable feedback in a way that helps them think and grow and does not force them to follow specific directions. Which is really similar to being a parent, according to my current day-to-day experience!
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I would say it like this: “If you start to feel comfortable in your position, wake up.” My manager Luděk Černocký is always pushing us to get out of our comfort zone and create new challenges for ourselves. For me, it’s about never stopping learning and discovering new paths, and not being comfortable with what I know today and am good at now.
Do not limit your focus only to digital design; keep your perspective open.
How do you keep up with design trends? Can you recommend any resources or communities for aspiring UI/UX designers to join?
I prefer not to follow trends and to focus more on the present and future of the product I’m responsible for, just because trends change but the product will remain for a while. However, staying informed about what is happening and resonating in the industry is good, and can be a source of inspiration.
If I could recommend one thing, it wouldn’t be following trends; it would be studying or focusing on disciplines such as psychology, architecture, coaching, or even cooking. Do not limit your focus only to digital design; keep your perspective open. All these activities I mentioned help me see design problems from a different perspective, keep my mind relaxed, and ultimately find better solutions.
If you could design anything without any constraints, what would it be and why?
I would love to design a small town or village in the real world. Having the chance to design the whole infrastructure, buildings, and services and see how people use it and interact with it would be great.
Outside of work, you’re the team’s Head of Pizza Design. What’s the secret to perfect dough? (Does a magician share his secrets…?)
Huh, tough question. In my opinion, it’s all about timing. You can prepare dough in a few hours, but letting it rest for a day or two returns much better results. The longer waiting period allows the dough to develop more flavor and a better texture. Waiting a day or two is just worth it!
However, other aspects affect the results. The quality of flour and potentially also water have a big impact. Temperature during dough processing can also affect the result.
But if I have to point out one thing that transformed the experience for me, I have to mention poolish, a pre-fermented fluid yeast-cultured dough. With a poolish, the final dough is always nice and fluffy.
