Design systems are taking over the world of product development, so we wanted to ensure that this topic would be represented well at WebExpo 2023. We invited amazing speakers from all over the world to share their hands-on experience with design systems. And trust me – you won’t want to miss it! Here are some of the highlights we can look forward to.
Bringing the best in the world to Prague
One of the speakers I’m looking forward to hearing the most this year is Nathan Curtis, the co-founder of EightShapes, a leading design systems agency. If you know anything about design systems, there’s a good chance you also heard about Nathan as well and found the answer to your questions about design systems in one of his many articles on Medium.
At WebExpo 2023, Nathan will talk about designing flexible components in Figma and based on Nathan’s past content, I know it will be packed with plenty of practical tips for improving your Figma UI libraries and the contribution processes around them.
That’s not all, though! On Friday, Nathan will share his extensive knowledge of design systems in his workshop, “Architecting design systems”. Anyone who is at least slightly interested in building effective and scalable design systems should attend this workshop. It’s a no-brainer for me. Nathan’s workshops are some of the most knowledgeable and engaging workshops I’ve ever attended, and the things I learned from them have affected my thinking and approach to design systems. I’ll be there. Will you?
We’ve also invited Dmitry Belyaev, Principal Frontend Engineer at Booking.com. He’ll focus heavily on developing design systems and share practical tips about CSS variables and building flexible theming. If you want to learn more about Dmitry’s work in advance, check out Reshaped Design System. It’s an extensive themeable design system with some of the best component documentation I’ve ever come across. It’s beautifully designed too.
Next, Luke Finch from News UK will share his expertise in building NewsKit, an open-source design system for a global audience. I worked on media design systems in the past myself, so I’m thrilled that we will get to hear Luke share their journey of creating one of the most inspiring design systems I know. In his talk, Luke will discuss the challenges and opportunities of creating a design system for several global media brands, such as the Wall Street Journal and The Times. He’ll also share why it was so important for them to work with user feedback actively and how it shifted their strategy from prescriptive components to more robust composability.
Have you noticed what these three talks have in common yet? It’s the concept of composability and how to make our components more flexible. It’s one of the hottest topics in design systems right now, and I’m curious to hear their various perspectives.
We have one more design systems talk prepared for you. Laura Fehre, DesOps & Design System Lead at Mews, will focus on a soft skill topic (but no less critical) in design systems – people. Laura will discuss why building a community around your design system is crucial for making it successful. She will also explain how to get support from leadership and create a design system infrastructure that lasts a long time.
Design systems mentor hour & roundtable discussion
Wait, there is more?! Yes!
I’ll be available during mentor hours, so if you have any questions about design systems or want to hang out and geek about design systems, stop by.
Additionally, I also recommend joining the discussion about DesignOps, hosted by Petra Javorková from Livesport. I’m sure design systems will come up a lot, so join us there and share your experience!