CategoryDesign Systems

June 8, 2022 — Defining a color palette and theme can be a lot of work, especially when considering contextual colors for elements’ various states. While CSS color-mix() only blends two colors together, this little function may be the key to maximizing your colors without maximum effort. Read more…

May 26, 2022 — Developing accessible products can be challenging, especially when some of the requirements are beyond the scope of development. It’s one thing to enforce alt text for images and labels for form fields, but another to define an accessible color palette. From working with design handoffs to supporting custom themes in a design system, the CSS color-contrast() function can become a cornerstone for developers in enforcing sufficiently contrasting and accessible UIs. Read more…

May 5, 2022 — When deploying websites, there’s rarely a one-size-fits-all solution. Some websites benefit from server-rendered pages, some prefer statically generating content upfront. In this article, Stefan explains how a CMS such as Storyblok can help you make your site more resilient without losing the flexibility to deliver time-relevant content. Read more…

April 12, 2022 — Everyone needs a design system. You can pick one off the shelf or put one together pretty quickly, and your problems are over. As with many things on the web, your mileage may vary. Like many things, a design system isn’t ever a finished thing — it’s a journey. How we go about that journey can affect the things we produce along the way. Before diving in and starting to plan anything out, be clear about where the benefits and the risks might lie. Read more…

February 28, 2022 — Maintaining a design system is a lot of work. In this article, we will have a look at what solutions fit inside the umbrella of a Design System, and a few important steps and checkpoints you need to keep an eye on throughout your projects. Here, Atila Fassina shares his lessons learned and how a platform such as Backlight can help put together a series of tools to speed up your architecture setup. Read more…

January 21, 2022 — Joining a team where there are no established design practices may feel disheartening. Does this situation resonate with you? If yes, then read on — as this article is sharing the author’s advice based on his personal experience and it will show you a way (although not easy) of facing the problem in a manner that will bring other benefits, beside order and consistency. Read more…

November 17, 2021 — Did you know that your chosen color palette can have an impact on how much energy your website uses? Even a more environmentally friendly choice of colors can reduce the impact on the battery life of mobile devices. In this article, Michelle Barker shares advice on the not-so-obvious things you have to keep in mind when handling colors in CSS today. Read more…

October 7, 2019 — Design systems can improve usability, but they can also limit creativity or fall out of sync with actual products. In this article, we’ll explore how designers and developers can create more robust design systems by building a culture of collaboration. Read more…

October 1, 2019 — Design is increasingly becoming more complex. Design processes require having a tight cross-functional collaboration between all teams involved in the creation of the product. Having a shared design language empowers teams to collaborate more effectively. That’s why many companies invest in design systems. But how can we ensure that a design system actually works for a product you’re working on and improves your team’s productivity? In this article, Nick Babich will try to find the qualities that make a design system good for your product development. Read more…

September 2, 2019 — Switching tools isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. In this article, Buzz Usborne brings you a nuts-and-bolts and behind-the-scenes look at how Help Scout migrated design systems from Sketch to Figma — why we made the switch, a step-by-step walkthrough of what it entailed, and what we got out of it — a story that applies to any team considering a large-scale tool migration. Read more…