Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Empowering Gaming at Scale: How Xbox Builds Powerful, Automated, and Distributed Design Systems with Sketch

Gold
Thursday, September 30, 2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Share the love for this talk
Empowering Gaming at Scale: How Xbox Builds Powerful, Automated, and Distributed Design Systems with Sketch
Speakers: Luca Rager
Link:

Summary

An essential part of creating a Design System is to make distribution and content flow sustainable. When the task is bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, the challenge gets massive! How can DesignOps and Automation become a facilitator for this challenge? Join Senior Software Engineer & Designer Luca Rager from Xbox as he takes us through their innovative take on design systems. Luca will illustrate how Sketch’s flexibility and modern DesignOps automation has allowed Xbox to package, theme and easily distribute component libraries. Furthermore, how their system bridges the gap between the Xbox Design System team and the wider product teams at Xbox.

Key Insights

  • Xbox Design System supports four themes including high contrast to ensure broad accessibility.

  • The component library needed to work across multiple platforms: TV, desktop, and mobile.

  • Theme customization is achieved by swapping foundational Sketch libraries rather than relying on overrides.

  • Every component and foundation (theme file) exists as its own Sketch file to support clarity and easy iteration.

  • Clyde, an internal automated tool, packages components into Sketch libraries and generates design tokens for engineers.

  • The design system team focused on creating easy-to-adopt kits for product designers to reduce complexity and improve uptake.

  • Multidisciplinary team members, including designers with engineering skills, help bridge gaps between disciplines.

  • Accessibility experts are embedded in the design process, enriching documentation and audits within the system.

  • Governance balances flexibility for product teams to propose and customize components with ensuring consistency from the core team.

  • Integration with Microsoft tools like Azure and Teams allows realtime notifications and seamless collaboration around design system updates.

Notable Quotes

"Gaming is for everyone anywhere, and Xbox has evolved way beyond the box under your TV."

"Our mission required us to build something fast, flexible, and scalable across many different product needs."

"A button is just a rectangle with some text, but our magic is in how we theme and customize it using foundations."

"Instead of overrides, we swap out entire theme files to customize components for different product teams."

"We realized the real problem was a people problem, not just tooling complexity."

"Sketch’s open file format allowed us to build custom tooling that shapes the design data to our needs."

"Clyde runs every time there’s a change, generating libraries and tokens to keep everyone up to date."

"Engineers love having individual components in files because it makes implementation much easier."

"Design system adoption exploded when we focused on the needs of everyone who builds, extends, or uses it."

"Accessibility and research are part of our org, not just consultants, which makes a huge difference in quality."

Ask the Rosenbot
Emily Lessard
RFPs Without Tears: Writing Inclusive RFPS that Don't Scare Away Talent
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Jennifer Fraser
What would Emmy Noether Do? Math, Models and Mulling in UX Research
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Sarah Auslander
Insights Panel
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Megan Blocker
Theme 2 Intro
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Spencer L. A. Stultz
Why Social Justice Frameworks are Necessary for Successful DEI/JEDI Initiatives
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Charlotte Lee
Theme 1 Intro
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Taylor Klassman
Shaping the Next Era of UX Research: Collaborative Forum
2025 • Advancing Research 2025
Gold
Marc Rettig
Discussion
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Sarah Barrett
AI in Real Life: Using LLMs to Turbocharge Microsoft Learn
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Jemma Ahmed
Democratization: Working with it, not against it [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Sol Mesz
Hands or Brains? How to Hire for Strategy, Strategically
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Liwei Dai
The Heart and Brain of the AI Research
2020 • Advancing Research 2020
Gold
Taylor Klassman
The Evolution of UX Research Platforms
2026 • Advancing Research 2026
Gold
Gordon Ross
12 Months of COVID-19 Design and Digital Response with the British Columbia Government
2021 • Civic Design 2021
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
How AI will Change DesignOps Tooling
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Kristin Skinner
Theme 2: Introduction and Provocation
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold

More Videos

Taylor Jennings

"Setting up a repository as a team of one or two is actually the prime time to establish processes like that."

Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex Knoll

Repository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research

March 9, 2022

Nicole Aleong

"We have a role to play in democratizing the future and amplifying more visions of what that future can hold."

Nicole Aleong

Future Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology

March 26, 2024

Jeff Gothelf

"Nordstrom decided that innovation needed to be a corporate value, not a lab value."

Jeff Gothelf

Innovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation

May 14, 2015

Saara Kamppari-Miller

"Tools are great, but they do not solve all problems; training and understanding the why behind accessibility is essential."

Saara Kamppari-Miller

DesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility

May 26, 2022

Tess Dixon

"It’s the individuals who choose whether and how they take advantage of the opportunities you create."

Tess Dixon

C'mon Get Happy

September 29, 2021

Liam Thurston

"Being intentional about how we spend our time is the purest manifestation of our values and our value."

Liam Thurston

Why Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It

June 10, 2022

Ian Swinson

"Careers as ladders are what HR wants, but careers aren’t linear; they should be a jungle gym."

Ian Swinson

Designing and Driving UX Careers

June 8, 2016

Leisa Reichelt

"When negotiating, bring plan A—show what you need and what good looks like—even if it seems outrageous."

Leisa Reichelt

Opening Keynote: Operating in Context

November 7, 2018

Rachael Greene

"Consistent, gentle support over time creates deeply loyal adopters."

Rachael Greene Alison Davis

Building a Design Ops Practice that Really Works (Most of the Time)

October 2, 2025