Design Systems
2 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Design efficiently. Design consistently. Improve collaboration.
Design Systems
2 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Design efficiently. Design consistently. Improve collaboration.
Course overview
Want to make better design decisions and feel confident articulating them?
Building a design system helps you to ingrain a deep understanding of what you’re designing and why, taking a more systematic approach to how decisions are made.
Join us in our live, online classes where we’ll dive in and get our hands dirty straight away, using Figma as our main tool. As part of this course, you’ll produce a final project, either making your own design system or reorganizing and enhancing the design system that you currently work with.
October 23, 25, 30, 1, 6, 8,
9:30am – 11:30pm Pacific
12:30pm – 2:30pm Eastern
6:30pm – 8:30pm CET
Who is this course for
01
Mid-level and senior designers looking to level up by contributing to design systems or bringing system thinking to their work
02
Early career starters in UX/UI and Product Design, who want to stand out and improve their organization and execution of UI in Figma
03
Design leaders who need to bring more design systems expertise to their team and organization
What you’ll get out of this course
Better advocate for design systems
Go beyond the hype to understand how design kits in Figma can play a crucial role in an overall Design System.
Develop a deep understanding of how digital products are built
Digital products are complex systems. Learn how to approach your design work in a more thoughtful and organized way.
Approach new projects with a systematic way of thinking
Organize your design work to improve your efficiency and focus more on the user and business needs that matter.
Build a design kit from scratch or improve an existing design kit
Complete a final project that you’ll present and get feedback on from the instructor and your peers.
Design Systems
Course syllabus
01
Overview of Design Systems
Dive into all the possibilities and considerations the world’s best design systems team consider in their work.
02
Design Tokens
Build the foundations of a design system by setting a system of color, typography, spacing, and sizing.
03
Flexible and Reusable Components
All components are not created equal. Solid design system components are thoughtfully designed to cover multiple use cases and states, allowing flexibility to reuse them in a variety of circumstances.
04
Nested Component Patterns
Develop increasingly complex components out of simpler base components, in a way that helps users of your design kit make good design choices.
05
Managing Documentation and Versions
Learn strategies for organizing your design system files and pages, documenting your system, tokens, and components, and managing updates to your system as it grows over time.
06
Final Project Presentations
As a final project, you’ll build the foundation of a new design system, or prepare your own contributions to an existing system. In the final session, we’ll present these projects for feedback and to celebrate what we’ve learned.
What people are saying
Johanna Grimberg
Héctor Rebollo
Lina Forero
Sabrina Arcella
Meet your instructor
Nevan Scott
Head of Education at Button School
Nevan has been teaching designers and developers for over a decade, and still loves every minute of it! He’s led programs at General Assembly and Ironhack, and coached designers and developers at every stage of their careers. He’s worked on design systems for the Swiss Red Cross, Northeastern University, Rustic Pathways, and Buzzfeed.
Course schedule
6–8 hours per week
Mondays & Wednesdays
12:30pm–2:30pm Eastern
9:30am–11:30am Pacific
6:30pm–8:30pm CET
Live Sessions
4 hours per week
We’ll meet live on Zoom for lessons, demos, and small group practice sessions in breakout rooms.
1:1 Coaching and Feedback
30 minutes per week
As part of the course, you’ll schedule 3 one-on-one sessions with Nevan. Use this time to discuss design system challenges at your work, and to prepare for and get feedback on your projects.
Readings and Exercises
2 hours per week
You’ll have targeted reading and exercises to prepare each week to enrich your learning and bring more insight to class discussions.
Final Project
2–10 hours of independent work
For the final project of this course, you’ll have two options:
- Create a basic design system from scratch, focusing on flexibility and documentation.
- Propose improvements to an existing design system that you currently work with.
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you
Frequently Asked Questions
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