A Roller Coaster Called Design Systems
17 Jan 2023
The Giant Dipper, by Daniel J. Schwarz via Unsplash
There is a famous wooden roller coaster, The Giant Dipper, built-in 1924 at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk that still entertains visitors today. The classic up-and-down action is enough to thrill you every time.
Like this roller coaster, there are many ups and downs in building a design system at a corporate scale.
- 🎢 Leaving the station: Full of optimism and hope
- ⬆️ Designers love to organize chaos
- ⬇️ Designers can be hard to please
- ⬆️ Playing with new tech
- ⬇️ Blocked by tech constraints
- ⬆️ Designers collaborating together
- ⬇️ Designers expecting exceptions
- ⬆️ Getting adoption - teams must love it
- ⬇️ Overwhelming demand to support all those adopters
- ⬆️ Releasing a new fresh new version
- ⬇️ Convincing product teams to switch versions
- ⬆️ Teaching everyone how to use the system
- ⬇️ Teaching everyone the new version because we changed it all
- ⬆️ Instant feedback from system users
- ⬇️ Being on-call support for inevitable bugs/issues
- ⬆️ Discovering and learning new design tools
- ⬇️ Adjusting previous work to new tool requirements
- 🚉 Back to the station - time for a vacation to recharge, before getting back on the ride
With their fast speeds and quick changes, roller coasters keep you super alert, entertained, and provide a feeling of accomplishment. As soon as the ride stops, you know right away if you want to go again, or never return. I keep getting back on this one.