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Knapsack presents
Design System Insights
Design Systems
When do design systems start to pay off?
By figuring out why design systems are so beneficial for product teams, we can get more value from them, faster.
October 21, 2021
By
Andrew Rohman
Why do design systems need content strategists?
Design systems don't just contain design elements: they're a central source of truth for product teams and ideally hold all of a product's assets, including content. Jess Sattell, Senior Content Strategist for Adobe's Spectrum design system, shares her experiences and thoughts on writing for design systems.
October 22, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Design Systems
Design systems aren't museums
What’s the difference between a design system and a pattern library? They serve different purposes.
October 6, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Design Systems
New feature alert: Knapsack makes managing design tokens easier
Design tokens are a critical part of your design system's functionality.
August 5, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Design Tokens
What do design system product managers do?
Maya Hampton, Product Manager of REI's design system Cedar, wrote a follow-up to her episode of the Design Systems Podcast. Read on to discover what the product manager of a leading design system does and how she makes an impact.
July 16, 2021
By
Maya Hampton
Design Systems
Using one design system to manage dozens of products with Intuit's Leonardo De La Rocha
Leonardo De La Rocha and Chris discuss the “federated” design system model, how to connect design systems to business needs, designing friction-free cross-platform experiences, and C-suite awareness of design needs.
July 12, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
Supporting inclusive form design with design systems
Form design isn’t a nice-to-have; they come up often and are carefully curated to get the right information at the right time. But when forms involve players from multiple teams, priorities can get mixed up and inclusion can fall to the wayside.
July 12, 2021
By
Max Masure
Design Systems
Audrey Tan from Xero: Creating a long-lasting design system vision
Audrey and Chris discuss the vision guiding Xero’s design system team, how co-ownership helps design system teams thrive, the processes she uses for managing a global team, and how the Xero design system team approaches modernization.
June 21, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
The link between accessibility and design systems
Accessible design and design systems are both more than just good design practice—they're good business. How can we build design systems that support accessible design practices?
June 8, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Accessibility
Jess Clark from LinkedIn: Old tech, new tech
Jess Clark and Chris discuss the meaning of design systems and the potential of design systems as a service. What can design systems offer us beyond infrastructure? How can approaching design systems as products, rather than repositories, increase their capabilities?
June 9, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
Deep dive on tokens with Adam Argyle from Google: How do you codify composition?
This episode is a little bit longer—okay, a lot longer—than our usual. Chrome developer advocate Adam Argyle and Chris Strahl talk about tokens in all their glory without worrying about time limits. If you’ve ever wondered about the limits of tokens and what’s left to explore in the token stratosphere, check out this transcript.
May 20, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
Thoughts on accessibility considerations in design systems
Design systems and pattern-based design are accessibility's best friends. By setting accessibility standards early, you can ensure products that meet high accessibility standards all the time.
May 20, 2021
By
Michael J. Fordham
Accessibility
Maya Hampton from REI: Pattern-based thinking on all levels
Maya Hampton, product manager of REI's design system, joined Knapsack CEO Chris Strahl to discuss why design systems need to be flexible, the role of a product manager in a design system, and viewing design systems as products.
July 12, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
Why accessible documentation is a must for design systems
Writing accessible documentation makes design systems easier to use, manage, and scale. Committing to writing accessible documentation isn’t just good practice; it’s good business. Read on to understand why accessible documentation is important for your design system and how it will benefit your workflow.
May 4, 2021
By
Soren Hamby
Design Systems
Design system resources for advanced practitioners
If you want to learn about design systems, there’s an endless list of resources at your disposal. This garden of resources, however, has a downside: uncertain quality. As a senior practitioner, you can’t risk trusting the wrong sources. That’s why we’ve put together a collection of resources vetted by design system experts.
October 21, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Design Systems
Meet Knapsack's new Figma integration
Knapsack's new Figma integration turns your color styles to design tokens—in code. Learn how our plugin will make designer-dev collaboration easy.
April 22, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Announcements
Version control best practices for design systems
Version control is a well-known best practice for developers; now we're welcoming it to design systems. Here's how to keep your design system impactful and up-to-date using version control.
April 20, 2021
By
Michael J. Fordham
Design Systems
Insights from Gartner’s design system effectiveness report
Tl;dr: “By 2025, over half of all new digital products globally will be traceable to a platform-based or open-source design system.” Get on board.
April 15, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Insights
Building design system communities with Jehad Affoneh and Scott Mathis
In episode 30 of the Design Systems Podcast, Jehad Affoneh, Scott Mathis, and Chris discuss the advantages of open-source, the role of content in design systems, the pattern-based approach to building apps, and similarities between music and tokens.
April 21, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Podcast
Six insights into design tokens
We spoke to experts from some of the world's most advanced design systems about design tokens: best practices, potential advances, and their importance to the design systems community. Our findings are packaged in a downloadable report.
April 22, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Design Tokens
What's pattern-based thinking, and what does it have to do with design systems?
To get the most out of a design system, we need to make sure it's built to last. Utilizing pattern-based thinking is key to creating a reusable, impactful design system.
April 5, 2021
By
Will Harris
Patterns
Why your voice and tone guide belongs in your design system
Design systems should be your organization's central source of truth for all brand elements—including voice and tone.
April 2, 2021
By
Joel Edelman
Design Systems
Welcome to the Knapsack blog: letter from the editor
Knapsack’s mission is to change the way people think about digital products while being excellent humans along the way. As part of that mission, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Knapsack’s design system publication.
April 12, 2021
By
Shayna Hodkin
Announcements
Is pattern-based thinking the new design thinking?
Design thinking was revolutionary—but it's not perfect. Pattern-based thinking is the solution.
May 4, 2021
By
Will Harris
Patterns
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