Dan Mall argues that mature design systems shrink rather than grow. Organizations often trim from 120 components down to 60, removing what doesn't earn its place. The real mistake is systematizing things that don't need it.
I think it is a little bit emergent, but I think that there are some patterns in it as well. So when it becomes too rigid is when you're systematizing things that don't need to be systematized from a digital context. I'll start there. One of the things that we're seeing with companies that have mature design systems that are in version 4 or version 5 of their design systems is that they're actually taking things out of it. They're not continuing to add to it. Companies that have 120 components and, you know, 12 patterns in their design system are now, for the next version, going, actually, you know what, we're going to reduce it down to 60 instead, and we're going to support those really well. So I think that's where it becomes overly rigid, is when it gets to a point where you're systematizing things that don't need to be systematized. Right.
