Design Systems, Not If, But When.

In conjunction with World Design Systems Week 2022, Lextech and Friends of Figma Chicago hosted a one-hour online panel on Sept. 22 that discussed “Design Systems: Not If, But When?” The panel covered topics such as:

• As a designer, what things do you look for to determine if it’s time to start creating a design system?
• How do you let people know you’re creating a design system?
• What groundwork do you have to do before starting your design system?
• How do you know whether a design system is working effectively? What are some success metrics to consider?
• When does a collection of design elements have enough “gravity” to pull together and become a full-fledged system?

Moderating the panel was Lextech principal designer Brian Mila. He was joined by:

Courtney Clark, VP of Design at Forum One

Courtney Clark has 15+ years of experience leading teams and designing for large, complex organizations. Some of her recent clients include The ALS Association, Peace Corps, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The MacArthur Foundation.

Bob Ricca, Director of Product Design at ThreatQuotient

With over 15 years of experience building enterprise software, Bob has a background rooted in both UX Design and Product Management. As the Director of Product Design at ThreatQuotient, he leads a design team to make cyber security software for Fortune 100 companies and government entities around the world. He has coached more than 200 designers through Designlab, a UX bootcamp, taught graduate level UX at Thomas Jefferson University, and volunteers his time by mentoring on ADPlist.org.

Helena Bukovac, Lead Product Designer at Harness

Helena is a design lead with a knack for spinning up, scaling, and crafting a healthy culture in design teams. She is passionate about education, fintech, and web3. Throughout her career, she encountered design systems of all sorts and sizes and tried to swim her way through them as best as possible.

Special thanks to Courtney, Bob and Helena for sharing their insights and experience.