Keeping design systems alive and healthy with user feedback and data

A presentation at Design Systems London in December 2022 in London, UK by Jan Toman

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Keeping design systems alive and healthy with user feedback and data Jan Toman

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Signals of design system’s decline πŸ”₯ Outdated components and/or documentation πŸ”₯ Support is slow, blocking product teams in their delivery πŸ”₯ Design system is always late with their improvements Leading to… πŸ’” Product teams not using the system πŸ’” Growing design and technical debt within a system and/or product(s) πŸ’” New rogue design systems emerging in the company πŸ’” Losing executive support

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Observability & To understand what works and whatnot. Research & continuous discovery To evolve the system.

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Observability To understand what works and whatnot. Adoption System status Satisfaction

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Observability Adoption

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β€” Observability Adoption / From Productboard

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β€” Observability Adoption / From Productboard

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Observability Adoption / From Productboard β€” bit.ly/dslondon1

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Observability Adoption β€” From the community πŸ‘€

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Observability Adoption / From the community Onfido) ( β€” Source: How to Measure Design System Adoption by Steve Dennis

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Observability Adoption / From the community Shopify Polaris) ( β€” Source: Tweet by Yesenia Perez-Cruz

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Observability Adoption/ From the community Bumble) No design system bit.ly/dslondon2 ( β€” Source: Measuring the Impact of a Design System by Cristiano Rastelli Having a design system

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Observability Status In Figma In React In Swift Accordion Yes No No Button Yes In progress Yes Dropdown Yes In progress No In progress No No Modal …

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Observability Status / From Productboard β€” Tools used: Google Sheet

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Observability Status / From Productboard β€” Tools used: Google Sheet data connected to Looker.com (custom script for data import)

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β€” Observability Status / From Productboard

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Observability Status β€” From the community πŸ‘€

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Status / From community Orbit by Kiwi.com, Ariane by Maze.co, Carbon by IBM, Seeds by SproutSocial) ( β€” Observability

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Status / From community Spectrum by Adobe) ( β€” Observability

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β€” Observability Status / Tooling: supernova.io

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Observability Satisfaction 😍 🀩 😫 😬

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β€” Observability Satisfaction / From Productboard

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Observability Satisfaction / From Kiwi.com Results from System Usability Score survey ) ( β€” Tools used: System Usability Score SUS survey, Google Sheet

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Observability Satisfaction / From Productboard β€” πŸ’‘ Tip: Collect praises from the users

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Preparing for th is now πŸ‘€ Research & continuous discovery To evolve the system.

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Research & continuous discovery 😍 🀩 πŸ“ Look for impactful opportunities πŸŽ› βœ‚ You have a lot of data and insights already. 😫 😬 🚦 πŸ“ˆ

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Research & continuous discovery Go back to your notes from initial research. Interview people again.

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Research & continuous discovery πŸ’‘ PRO TIP Be close to where your users are and track their feedback continuously β€œ We need weekly interactions with customers, because we are making product decisions every day. Source: β€œContinuous Discovery” by Gerard Chiva

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Research & continuous discovery / From Productboard Internal conversations about design, patterns, and UI development Product feedback repository

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Research & continuous discovery / From Productboard Internal conversations about design, patterns, and UI development Feedback from the end users of the product Product feedback repository

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Research & continuous discovery / From Productboard Product feedback repository 65 000 pieces of feedback (β€œinsights”) collected over past 8 years 5 8% +

was somehow related to a design system and UI/UX

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Research & continuous discovery / From Productboard Result We had a strong discovery backlog backed by feedback from the users πŸŽ‰ πŸ’‘ No vertical scroll bar visible 117 insights πŸ’‘ Low contrast issues 110 insights πŸ’‘ Status color palette 2.0 72 insights πŸ’‘ Undo pattern 62 insights πŸ’‘ Dark mode 40 insights πŸ’‘ Horizontal scrolling issue 34 insights πŸ’‘ Z-index levels 17 insights πŸ’‘ Scrolling with no mouse wheel 16 insights πŸ’‘ Automate delivery of design system icons 15 insights

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bit.ly/dslondon3

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Let’s wrap it up

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A lot can be tracked for design systems πŸ‘€ Identify which data are important for your design system to have. Focus on those.

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Summary β€’ Understand how people use the system β€’ Track how the system is extended and customized β€’ Have strong feedback loops with users of a design system β€’ Partner with your data team – you don’t need to figure it out alone β€’ Keep stakeholders informed about key metrics (e.g. adoption) t! n a rt o p im y ll ia c e p s e is e The last on

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@ Thank you! All mentioned links and resources on bit.ly/dslondon-overview Find me on Twitter HonzaTmn