Design System Bootcamp
5-week Bootcamp to build a design system & become a Figma expert. SOLD OUT 🔥
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Course overview
Gain the skills & confidence to build a design system in Figma.
Whether you build a design system for your product or just for practice. You'll become an expert in Figma's most advanced features and workflows.
More than a live workshop!
💪 Bite-sized independent projects
📺 Demo videos & resources
👋 Live office hours
👯♀️ Community chat & support
Who I made this course for
01
Intermediate designers ready to build their first design system or start contributing to an existing one.
02
Design teams looking to take their design system to the next level or transition from another tool.
03
Non-designers and career switchers who want to turbo boost their Figma skills and gain a deeper understanding of design systems.
Key outcomes
Figma Design System!
By the end of this bootcamp you will have built an entire design system in Figma. One with expertly designed styles, components, and workflows that are ready for anything!
Master advanced Figma features
Learn exactly when and how to use Figma's most advanced features like variables (NEW), auto layout, variants, and properties.
Find a workflow that suits your needs
Learn the benefits of using different Figma workflows and how they can best serve your product & team.
Connect with other designers
Learn and build alongside a cohort of fellow designers. Sharing feedback, holding each other accountable, and forming lasting relationships.
What’s included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Molly Hellmuth in a real-time, interactive format.
Lifetime access
Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.
Community of peers
Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.
Certificate of completion
Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.
Maven Guarantee
This course is backed by the Maven Guarantee. Students are eligible for a full refund up until the halfway point of the course.
Course syllabus
12 live sessions • 122 lessons • 20 projects
Week 1
- 👩🏫
Welcome to Design System Bootcamp!
- 🎯
Introduce yourself
Complete by Oct 22 - 📖
Meet your TAs!
- 📖
Free EDU Figma Plan
- 📖
Free UI Prep Design System
- 📖
Bootcamp FAQ
- 👩🏫
File structure maps
- 🎯
Create a map of your file structure
Submit by Oct 23 - ➕
Enterprise workspace structure
- ➕
Swap Style and Component Libraries
- ➕
Chat with Joey Banks (Ex-Webflow, Twitter)
- ➕
Chat with Ridd (Ex-Maven)
- ➕
Chat with Rick James Chatas (Ex-Airbnb, Pinterest, Square) - BONUES
- 👩🏫
How to add a color palette
- 📖
Designing a comprehensive color system
- 📖
Where to get your colors
- 📖
Adobe best practices
- 📖
WCAG accessibility guidelines & plugin
- 🎯
Add color palette
Submit by Oct 24 - ➕
The folly of foundations
- ➕
How to audit existing colors
- ➕
Color is not a science
- ➕
Adobe Spectrum Q&A with Nate Baldwin
- 🎯
Submit before the Q&A Next Tuesday
Submit by Oct 28 - 👩🏫
Getting started with variables
- 📖
Variables 101
- 📖
Variables vs Styles
- 📖
Advice from the experts
- 📖
Synchronizing Figma variables with Design Tokens
- 🎯
Variable check-in
Submit by Oct 25 - ➕
Unlock design system scalability with variables
- ➕
Tokens vs Variables in Tokens Studio for Figma
- ➕
WFT are design tokens
- ➕
The many faces of themeable design systems
- ➕
Component-level Design Tokens: are they worth it?
- ➕
Creating multi-channel multi-theme connected libraries in Figma
Oct
21
✨🥾 DSB Meet & Greet
Oct
23
✨🥾 Office Hours #1
Welcome! Let's get started 👋
Welcome to Design System Bootcamp! Go through these lessons to learn a little more about what's to come, get some of your questions answered, and introduce yourself to the rest of the cohort! [~30min to complete]
File Structure
Learn about different file structures and determine the best strategy for the design system you will be building over the next 5 weeks. [~1.5hr to complete]
Color Palette
Learn how to build a practical & accessible color palette. [~2.5hr to complete]
Get Ready for Guest Luis Ouriach
Submit 1-3 questions for this week's guest speaker.
Intro to Variables & Tokens
Learn about Figma's newest feature, variables! And how they make tokenizing your design system possible. We'll start using them in the next module. [~1.5hr to complete]
Week 2
Oct
28
Q&A with Luis Ouriach @ Figma
Oct
28
✨🥾 Office Hours #2
Oct
30
✨🥾 Office Hours #3
Color Variables & Styles
Learn how to add color variables and styles with the palette you created. [~4hr to complete]
Typography Variables & Styles
Learn how to build a practical set of typography styles. [~2hr to complete]
Number Variables & Effect Styles [BONUS]
Learn how to add number variables and drop shadow effects. [~1.5hr to complete]
Week 3
Nov
4
✨🥾 Office Hours #4
Nov
6
✨🥾 Office Hours #5
Components 101
Learn how to use auto layout, constraints, components, variants & properties. [~1hr to complete]
Simple Components
Learn how to build 3 simple components using auto layout, variants & properties. [~3hr to complete]
Layout Guides & Breakpoints [BONUS]
Learn how to use grids, breakpoints, and variable modes to make your system more responsive [~2hr to complete].
Week 4
- 🎯
Submit before Q&A this Wednesday
Submit by Nov 12
Nov
11
✨🥾 Office Hours #6
Nov
12
Q&A with Stephanie Swift @ Adobe
Nov
13
✨🥾 Office Hours #7
Get Ready for Guest Stephanie Swift
Submit 1-3 questions for this week's guest speaker.
Advanced Components
Learn how to build 3 advanced components using atomic, nested instances. [~4hr to complete]
Week 5
Nov
18
✨🥾 Office Hours #8
Nov
20
✨🥾 Office Hours #9
Free Build
Create 3-6 new components specific to the needs of your product or the skills you want to practice. [~ 4hr to complete]
Documentation, Governance & Scalability
Determine the best way to document and organize your new design system! [~2hr to complete]
Prototyping with Components & Variables [BONUS]
Learn how to use variables and interactive components for more efficient prototyping. [~1hr to complete]
Bonus
- 📖
DSB Vault
DSB Vault [Bonus]
Bonus recordings from past special guest Q&A calls.
What students are saying
Self-taught shouldn't be the standard.
Designers need training to develop a shared understanding of best practices and keep up with new Figma features.
Hear from past students
Meet your instructor
Molly Hellmuth
Molly Hellmuth
Creator of UI Prep
Hey, I'm Molly! 👋 The creator of UI Prep. A Figma design resource that has 100K+ UI kit downloads and creates custom-built design systems for a wide range of companies. I've also trained designers and design teams from amazing companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Square, Atlassian, Gusto, and Open Table.
Course Schedule
~6 hours per week
Self-paced lessons
2-3hr per week
1-2 modules per week with lessons walking you through the process of building a full design system in Figma. Each one with recorded demo videos & additional resources to help you complete the next project.
Bite-sized projects
2-3hr per week
Build a full design system by completing a series of bite-sized independent projects. For example, "Create scalable color styles" and "Build a button component set using auto layout, variants, and properties".
Office Hours with Molly
(optional)
Two 1hr live Q&A calls with Molly and the rest of the cohort to answer questions and dive deeper into that week's projects.
🕓 Tuesdays @ 3pm PST
🕘 Thursdays @ 9am PST
Learning is better with cohorts
Project-based learning
Complete projects independently, then share your progress, ask questions, and compare notes with the rest of the cohort.
Ask Molly anything!
Get feedback directly from Molly when you submit projects and join office hour calls.
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you.