A short spoken excerpt arguing that design systems are practical, purpose-built tools for a company’s products—not portfolio art. The speaker advises teams to build systems tailored to their organization’s product type rather than copying generic frameworks (e.g., Google’s Material Design), which are optimized for their original creators and may poorly fit other companies.
Design system is not something that is, you know, art. It's not something that's like just your portfolio piece. You should be able to put it in your portfolio if you're working on it, like, that's, that's a good thing. But if you work at a, you know, at a computer company, well, your design system should be made to create computer company stuff, you know, Whereas if you work at an events company, your design system should be made to make event company stuff. And material design is not that. Material design is awesome. And the team there has been working on it for a long time, so they made it for Google products. So if your company doesn't make products that are like Google products, at some point, it's going to be an awkward fit. So a lot of times when I'm working with teams, I'm like, try to make the design system that your company needs. Don't try to make a design system that like, looks like all the other ones. Because if it looks like all the other ones, how do you know, like, it's a good fit for yours?
