4 sources to follow to stay updated on design systems (+ bonus)
(Updated July 2018) For the last three years, there have been a lot of sources with information about design systems. And it’s not easy to follow all of them so I created a short list that helps me not to miss interesting content.
1) Slack Design Systems
This is probably one of the best source providing information about design systems. This community is full of designers and developers who are keen to share their tips with you or help with your struggles.
What can you find there? Actually, most of the content about design systems appears in this Slack group. Discussions about processes, tools and documentation. You can find a lot of links to articles, new design systems or events that are happening. Also, there are channels dedicated to a specific design tool (Sketch, InVision, Fractal, Brand.ai, …). The great thing is that some creators of those tools are on this Slack as well — so it’s basically direct channel for asking them any question you may have.
So if you are serious about design systems, this is just the place where you should be. It was created by Jina Anne and you can join here.
2) Design Systems Newsletter
This is must go if you want to stay informed without much work. Stuart Robson curates this newsletter about design systems a few times a month, and it contains much more than just links to interesting articles. He also adds plenty of other links — whether to newly published libraries, links to podcasts and videos and other exciting stuff.
If you discovered this newsletter now, don’t be sad — design system newsletter has the massive archive with all previous issues. But it takes a few weeks to explore it all.
3) Adele
Every time I am looking for some inspiration from different design systems, my steps are leading me to Adele from UXPin team. Adele is the repository of publicly available design systems and pattern libraries. This repository is inspired by another great resource, Awesome Design System from Alex Pate, but Adele has one huge addition to it — possibility to filter. It gives you handy control over what design systems you want to see — if you are looking for inspiration on design tokens or illustration documentation, you pick a related filter, and you can dive into those resources.
4) Style Guide Podcast
Even that this is not a list of new articles or information, I see a great value in these podcasts. One podcast is about 45 minutes long and there is a bunch of insights from designers who work on design systems in interesting companies (Salesforce, Mailchimp, Microsoft, …).
It’s hosted by Brad Frost and Anna Debenham and it has two seasons. The first season is from 2015 and is interesting to see how it has changed over the course of 2 years. The second season started in June 2017.
Also, if you like listening to podcasts, you can find a few others about design systems on StyleGuides.io.
Bonus: 8 Twitter accounts to follow
There is a lot of people who publish or share something about design systems on Twitter. But… a lot of Twitter accounts are very personal and you need to filter it a lot to find design system gems. Therefore, I picked accounts that have some information value for me and aren’t overflowed by personal tweets or food pictures. 🙄
Nathan Curtis
Nathan is a designer from the US and probably, there is no need to introduce him. It’s the best Twitter source of design systems for me. He shares a lot good articles and also tweets his opinions on the topic. If there is one person you should follow, it’s Nathan Curtis.
Alla Kholmatova
Alla is a designer from London. I like that she tweets just a few times a week. Her tweets are mostly about something related to design systems or design in general. The current focus of hers is on researching design systems, that she probably did for her new book, Design Systems. This book is just another reason why you should follow her, it should be finished in September of 2017.
Marcin Treder
Marcin is the CEO of UXPin, a tool for designing interfaces. They recently introduced their new library plugin for UXPin and Sketch. As I understand it, Marcus’s focus is mostly on this plugin. If you check his Twitter, you’ll find that he shares a lot about design systems and processes around them.
Karri Saarinen
Karri leads design system in Airbnb. He doesn’t tweet much, but when he does, it’s either about design systems or design culture in Airbnb. Don’t expect hot news here, but if you are interested in Airbnb design, don’t miss this one. If you aren’t interested in Airbnb design, you should be. :-)
Brent Jackson
Brent specializes in modular design and front-end architecture, so if you like using React for design systems, be sure to follow him. He is also a creator of the component library Rebass and more useful tools. They look pretty awesome, don’t forget to check them.
Diana Mounter
Diana is working as Design Operations Manager at Github and she is building their design system — Primer. She is a very active speaker so she shares a lot from different events and her tweets about design systems are very often on point.
Michael Austin Sui
Michael is another designer from Airbnb, more focused on accessibility. I see accessibility as one of the most important things in design. Michael’s tweets work well as a constant reminder of it.
Design Systems
This account is connected to design.systems website and it mostly tweets info about events related to design systems — Clarity Conf or Design Systems Coalition meetups. If you want to stay informed about dates of those US events, this account should help with that.
Well, this is mostly it. This should do the job and keep you updated on design systems and everything related. It definitely works for me.
Do you think someone or something should be on this list? Share it please with me and others in the comments!
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