Has anyone read anything compelling about the trend for design systems I’m seeing which is to “do less”, “make less”, and even go as far as “we’re not making anything new”? I don’t currently understand it. If there’s a need for a thing, why not make it/centralise it. I’d like to understand it. - ThreadSky

robjmccarthy.bsky.social • 109 days ago

Has anyone read anything compelling about the trend for design systems I’m seeing which is to “do less”, “make less”, and even go as far as “we’re not making anything new”?

I don’t currently understand it. If there’s a need for a thing, why not make it/centralise it.

I’d like to understand it.

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wolfbruening.de•108 days ago

Haven't read about that either. But I was always advocate to stay lean and only build what you can handle. Letting your Design System grow so large that you can't properly maintain it anymore might lead to outdated components, which lead to a lack of trust, which in turn leads to declining adoption…

robjmccarthy.bsky.social•105 days ago

Completely agree on the lean front. But what if DS users need components that the DS doesn’t have. Should the DS be meeting that need and expanding the DS? And if it requires team expansion to maintain the DS, is it not the job of the DS team to make that case?

wolfbruening.de•105 days ago

I advice teams to build one-off components themselves. Otherwise you become a constant bottleneck for all other teams if you require all frontend components to be made by you.

And you can‘t scale your DS team beyond certain limits of efficiency. Also most orgs won’t let you do that anyway.

robjmccarthy.bsky.social•105 days ago

Oh gosh yea. I don’t think DS teams should be creating one-off components.

wolfbruening.de•105 days ago

And between one-off components and more or less regularly used components there's a gray area where you have to draw a line.
At our design system we often don't add components if they are (and will be) used by one team only. Because then the team is a bigger expert on the component than us.

robjmccarthy.bsky.social•105 days ago

What’s your thought on patterns? I think there’s a finite amount of components. But patterns, that’s where it gets exciting.

But, where a component may have a use across lots of (even all teams - I’m thinking a button) patterns are likely to be much less. Still multiple teams, but much less.

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