Design Systems People/Portfolios
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- 5timuli
I swear there was a least one specific thread on this but I'm fucked if I can find it.
Does anyone here work in design systems? What's your focus/speciality? Do you have a portfolio? Does a good design systems portfolio exist without being full of corporate horse shit?
I've worked in the space for over a decade, but because of how fast things move, and shifting tech goalposts, a lot of what I was working on was in limbo. Hefty adaptive typography systems, accessible, systematic color using HSLuv/lch(), design token creation and management...
Maybe I'm just uninspired. Maybe it's mental illness.
- duckseason2
I know that feeling well. I work on a small, two-person team in charge of all things web design for a 5,000+ person organization—we handle the systems, documentation, components, templates, one-off landing pages, bespoke experiences, animation, research, user testing, and more.
What you've described can be about as dull as they get from a visual perspective. Or, you can see it as a challenge: how do you take something as inherently boring as WCAG compliance or token systems and turn it into something refreshing? What's a non-traditional way to represent this work? How can you take that work and turn it into a visually interesting artifact that still highlights the foundational thinking that went into it? While I don't have any examples of portfolios, the Dropbox Brand Guidelines site is, IMO, a good example for injecting fun and interactivity into what could easily be a forgettable, 'left-nav/right-content' page; specifically the color and type pages.
There's a part of design systems that scratches a methodical itch, but it can definitely leave you feeling drained and uninspired—I'm certainly feeling that now. At the same time, I still appreciate a good design challenge and the opportunity to not be constrained by the rigidity of the system I helped create. XD
- Drained and uninspired Is exactly how I feel. I did a lot of exciting, experimental stuff, but it was all very specific to my last employer, their tech stacks,5timuli
- brand identity, and eng prioritization.All things which are valuable to discuss, but I don’t want a portfolio full of meaningless diagrams and pic of post-it5timuli
- notes. Fucking yawn.5timuli
- Thankfully, my counterpart is MUCH more invested in the DS side of things, which leaves me more time to focus on everything else.duckseason
- ********-7
I always do style guides for delivery to devs, never a full design system, that is a total waste of time - unless you're like Microsoft or Salesforce.
But for example, maybe these help you:
https://fluent2.microsoft.design…
https://www.lightningdesignsyste…
https://design.visa.com/welcome/…
https://carbondesignsystem.com/
- There are plenty of jobs needing someone to create/maintain a design system, but having a "design systems folio" is new to me...********
- Fuck offredneck
- There are plenty of jobs needing someone to create/maintain a design system, but having a "design systems folio" is new to me...
- maquito2
I work in Oracle in the visual design team, permanently using, enhancing, and updating the Redwood design system. I don't have any design systems in my portfolio, since I've only worked with, and designed like... 2?,
I think of them as an omnipresent entity. I think, from a product perspective, what you DO with the components is way more relevant than the component itself. The DS per-se just takes some Figma basic skills and decent documentation. Delivering a consistent, articulate, accessible DS that can be "played" with, in the other hand much more interesting.
- *ismaquito
- You work for Oracle?!
Ooft.Nairn - https://gifdb.com/im…maquito
- monNom2
The Design System is the command economy of the design world. All decisions are made at the top, whether they make sense or not — the system must be obeyed. Like a command economy, they can produce output efficiently. Also like a command economy, the output is complete shit.
//hot take.
- Not a hot take at all, this is the truth.********
- meh, they’re just suggestions, I’m gonna push it anywaymonospaced
- Not a hot take at all, this is the truth.
- ********-5
Maybe this helps to see the levels of complexity of these design systems:
