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’s design system supports four themes including high contrast to ensure global accessibility.
-
•
The component library uses a ‘foundations’ swapping method for theming instead of override reliance.
-
•
Each component and foundation is stored as its own Sketch file for clarity and iteration speed.
-
•
Clyde is a custom-built automation tool that processes component updates and generates ready-to-use kits for designers.
-
•
Automation via Clyde extracts tokens from design files to seamlessly integrate with engineering workflows.
-
•
The design system team is multidisciplinary, blending design, research, accessibility, and engineering expertise.
-
•
The system balances complexity with usability, avoiding over-engineering to foster easier adoption by product teams.
-
•
Governance allows product teams to contribute new components, promoting extensibility and shared ownership.
-
•
Accessibility experts work closely within the design process, not just as consultants, ensuring better documentation and audits.
-
•
Smart Layout in Sketch is extensively used to create flexible, responsive components.
Notable Quotes
"Gaming is for everyone, anywhere."
"A button is easier than a human butter and jelly sandwich since it only has two ingredients."
"Rather than rely on overrides to achieve theming, we do it by swapping out these files which we call foundations."
"Our design system ended up looking a lot like this image regardless of whether you extend it or customize it."
"As designers, we have empathy to solve the people problems that come with complexity."
"Clyde runs every time a component gets updated, packaging all themes with every foundation into kits."
"We have direct control over the design data, extracting tokens for engineering while packaging libraries for designers."
"Accessibility and research are very much part of the organization, not just something we consult."
"The governance model allows product teams to propose new components that everyone can then use."
"Being a hybrid person—both designer and engineer—helps me bridge those two worlds in this design system."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"If designers spend more time talking about titles than their work, we’re just gazing into our navels."
Adam Cutler Karen Pascoe Ian Swinson Susan WorthmanDiscussion
June 8, 2016
"Middle managers are responsible for the how—process, coordination, and communication—and you don’t see the value of that until it’s missing."
Peter MerholzThe Trials and Tribulations of Directors of UX (Videoconference)
July 13, 2023
"Governance is about decision making, not workflow processes."
Lisa WelchmanCleaning Up Our Mess: Digital Governance for Designers
June 14, 2018
"Sustainable practices are not just a luxury; they are a necessity for our survival."
Vincent BrathwaiteOpener: Past, Present, and Future—Closing the Racial Divide in Design Teams
October 22, 2020
"OKRs are a tool for each of us to tidy our house and focus on what’s important."
Brenna FallonLearning Over Outcomes
October 24, 2019
"Thick data is the opposite of big data; it’s stories, qualitative, and crucial during moments of rapid change."
Tricia WangSpatial Collapse: Designing for Emergent Culture
January 8, 2024
"Clusters describing demographics and behaviors alone were not enough; we needed emotional personas to find value propositions."
Edgar Anzaldua MorenoUsing Research to Determine Unique Value Proposition
March 11, 2021
"Context-related data gathered through qualitative research is the first to reach our decision-making centers in the brain."
Designing Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
"You’re never testing an idea purely; you’re always testing the implementation of that idea."
Erin WeigelGet Your Whole Team Testing to Design for Impact
July 24, 2024
