Designing and Automating Component Specifications

Wednesday, 9th – 10:40 AM

Creating high-quality interfaces requires rigor and sweat, but communicating those ideas doesn’t have to. Design system practitioners make components of intricate anatomy, configurable properties and sophisticated layout. A designer must not just detail visual attributes, dependencies, and configurations, but also communicate them clearly, consistently, and repeatedly as work evolves.

In this talk, Nathan will describe the journey that transformed spec patterns honed over years of client projects into a Figma plugin that creates them in seconds. He’ll dance along the edge of automation, leaning back into the manual work necessary for designers to deliver with quality. As we improve our craft, this talk will address how to annotate change, decide what specs we value and don’t, come to depend on Figma’s dev mode … or not. By the conclusion, you’ll leave inspired how to more effectively communicate UI design with rigor.

Nathan will also give a workshop on Design Systems.