Michela Frecchiami
@mic_design
Michela Frecchiami
Accessibility isn’t addressed only to people who have permanent impairments. We all have impairments in certain situations, i.e. when we have sore throats virtual assistants can’t understand what we have said. Screen glare, driving, cooking, at loud bar…Accessibility helps all people, without distinctions.
Articulating Design Decisions
youtu.bePeople on the outside will criticize things they have a limited view of. But if you give people the chance to be part of the solution, they will either take you up on it or they will see how their suggestion impacts everyone else.
When someone offers you a challenge, don’t think of all the reasons why you can’t do it. Instead, say, ‘Yes!’ Then figure out how you’ll get it done.” This is the foundational principle for leading with a yes. — Tom Greever
The most general misconception I often see at scale is that, once a design system is established, every product must then use it. “100% adoption” is the goal, meaning design system work isn’t done until every product at the organization has been migrated to use the design system.
This is nonsense.
A design system prioritization matrix
Reading time: around 3 minutes
Design systems have massive impact at scale, especially with organizations that manage dozens, hundreds, or thousands of digital products. But that scale brings its own set of problems.
The most general misconception I often see at scale is that, once a design system is established, every product must then use it. “100% adoption” is the goal, meaning design system work isn’t done until every product at the organization has been migrated to use the design system.
This is nonsense.
For starters, migrating just the codebase of hundreds or thousands of digital products would take years.
The solution is a more pragmatic point of view: only some of an organization’s products should use the design system.
Which begs the question: which products should use the design system and which ones shouldn’t?
This is a question I’ve spent time on with every single organization I’ve consulted with.
A design system prioritization matrix
Luckily, I found a handy guide a few years ago that I use every time:
This is a super useful matrix by design system consultant Nathan Curtis entitled “Must/Should/Could a Product Adopt a System?” The two axes are “Product Stage” and “Upcoming Investment,” a smart combination that juxtaposes two of the most important factors of valuable design system work.
The green “Must” and red “Avoid“ areas make obvious what many teams struggle with without a matrix like this to help them:
New products with more upcoming investment compared to the prior period must use the design system. Launching a new flagship website or app that’s gonna get a lot of executive and/or marketing attention? Use the design system for sure.
Legacy products with no upcoming investment compared to the prior period should avoid using the design system. That old Lotus Notes-based application approaching end-of-life in 2 years? Don’t bother migrating that over.
The “Should“ and “Could” areas get trickier, so spend more time here. An emerging product with less upcoming investment? Hmm. It should probably use the design system, but it’s worth a few conversations to make sure. An established product with the same investment as last quarter? It could use the design system, but it’s worth considering if there are higher priority places to spend your time.
A concept is strategy, visualized
Great designers are able to distill the essence of a strategy and transmute it (through a mockup, a storyboard, a sentence, a quote, a metaphor, or a story) into a form that stakeholders can grasp and embrace.
https://www.doc.cc/articles/concept?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
You can only optimize what you can measure. This explains both why it’s impossible to optimize for happiness (not measurable), and why we so often optimize for things that don’t actually make us happy (money, social media likes, how much you can deadlift, etc—all easy to measure!)
Julie Zhuo
While concepting, focus on… concepts
There’s a time and place for different discussions. Oftentimes, in the absence of strategic arguments, peers might raise tactical commentary when reviewing conceptual work (the classic “have you thought about the empty state” comment). But while it's tempting to address every potential scenario immediately, tackl
... See moreSatisfaction does not come from money, rewards, status or praise; it comes from impressing yourself. Mistaking the former for the latter is a source of enormous misery.
Julie Zhuo
"I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, but as the years wasted on, nothing ever did unless I caused it.”
—Charles Bukowski