Summary
A Design system is not only about standardizing the UI or accelerating design. In the big picture, it can streamline collaboration between design and development. With this goal in mind, an effective Design system is available to both designers and developers in a format that is native to each discipline. However, getting to this point takes time. But what if we can skip ahead with a starter Design system containing both design and coded components that are ready for use? Join our activity sessions to see how you can transform your pixel-perfect designs into pixel-perfect code for modern web applications with Indigo.Design. We will also revisit the typical developer handoff by introducing a re-imagined workflow that minimizes rework. In the end, this approach can free up our focus to run Design-Ops better and deliver value sooner. Part 1 (Thursday): Introducing a starter Design system, and Indigo.Design overview Part 2 (Friday): Reimagining developer handoff, and introducing App builder ? Part 3 (Friday): Indigo.Design overview and exploring the developer workflow
Key Insights
-
•
Indigo.Design provides a seamless bridge between designers' UI kits (Sketch, XD, Figma) and developer-ready Angular code.
-
•
The cloud-based app builder enables real-time collaboration between designers and developers on the same components.
-
•
Code generated by Indigo.Design is a full-fledged Angular app with routing, styles, and assets structured for immediate compilation.
-
•
Global theming is supported, allowing developers or designers to change app-wide brand attributes with one click.
-
•
Instead of CSS specs handed off, developers get complete components with built-in styling hooks and documentation.
-
•
Publishing new design versions creates branches and pull requests in GitHub, streamlining developer updates.
-
•
Indigo.Design currently supports Angular 12/13 code generation; React support is on the roadmap.
-
•
Documentation generation is not yet automated but the system supports integration with tools like Storybook and can coexist with external docs.
-
•
The workflow preserves design fidelity so developers run apps that look exactly like the designs without debate.
-
•
Assets like SVGs and images are automatically managed and placed in the app’s assets folder, ensuring consistent inclusion.
Notable Quotes
"Designers create their designs in Sketch or XD and import them into the cloud app builder, where both designers and developers can collaborate."
"We generate professional Angular applications where developers don't need to copy-paste or handwrite frontend layout code."
"With one click, you can skin the entire application and change brand attributes like typography, coloring, or rounding."
"Publishing changes creates a new branch and pull request in GitHub, making it easy for developers to review and merge."
"The CSS is minimal because components absorb style changes from top-level variables; styles are never duplicated per component instance."
"We don't black box anything — you get all the code structured as a real Angular app, ready to run with npm install and npm start."
"Currently, we target Angular first because many customers use it, but React support is coming soon in our roadmap."
"Accessibility compliance is critical especially for government customers and is something we support and continue improving."
"Indigo.Design is compatible with external documentation tools like Storybook or Zeroheight but doesn't generate all documentation automatically yet."
"At the end of the day, the goal is to guarantee that what you design matches exactly what gets produced in code."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"A 101 conversation over coffee yields better insights than written reviews in 360 assessments."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"UXers are less satisfied than their peers because we have failed to set expectations about the real work of UX in organizations."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Digital is a system, not a project. It’s there all the time and you have to keep iterating on it."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Investing in sustainability today will yield dividends for future generations."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"The squad model flopped for us after six months but created culture triads that stuck around."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Working from home during the pandemic is hard because it’s fun only when you can actually leave your home."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"Proto personas created by cross-department participants helped us build unbiased, relevant survey questions."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Our brains are terrible at operating only on one type of information, whether object-oriented or context-oriented."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"The conversion design process creates collective knowledge, which gets reinfused to strengthen future experiments."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
