Dear (none)Designer,
Welcome back to the fiftieth Design at Scale™ Newsletter – where we explore innovation and how design sparks real change in large organisations and agencies.
With the arrival of Figma in 2015, the world discovered that user interfaces could be driven by UI kits that define global properties across multiple products. This inspired thousands—if not millions—of agencies to build their own UI kits as part of their extended offerings.
Designers spent countless hours crafting UI screens and creating mirror files to document every possible variant of a single component, showing how each could be used across websites, applications, or services.
As a result, clients often received two files: a UI reference for the site or application, and a UI kit representing every possible variant—many of which were never used. Literally millions of content layers were passed between agencies and clients, with most remaining untouched.
Regrettably, clients would often plead, “Simplify, simplify, simplify your design system! We don’t need all these variants.” Yet agencies continued producing hundreds of variations for each component, trying to showcase creativity instead of understanding that a well-designed, flexible component could cover all these needs with far less complexity.
As time passed and technology evolved, building new components became a matter of copy and paste. Replicating entire UI kits became the norm, rather than thoughtful design.
The result? These sprawling UI kits became nearly impossible to manage, marking an era of design system saturation. Seasoned design professionals noticed this trend. The media even began to discuss the 'death of design systems,' questioning how companies could maintain a consistent visual language in kits that few could actually navigate or use.
Building the 'best UI kit in town' often became a solo exercise for design system architects, protecting something only a few could appreciate. After years spent on design systems for leading car manufacturers, retailers, and telecoms—some with millions of layers—we realized this wasn’t the solution we thought it would be.
Then came primitives—simple, reusable building blocks—which completely shifted the industry. The age of endlessly copying and pasting components was over, as new creative technologies took center stage.
Whether we like it or not, design systems may no longer be the sole domain of designers. In just a year, organizations experienced staggering changes. Automation accelerated the process so much that many design tasks became commoditized.
While most panicked, a small but visionary group saw opportunity. By integrating design with business and development, they began to build an ultimate bridge—one that gives design a seat at the table and true ownership of the product journey.
Despite negative press and predictions of doom, we’re seeing more designers founding companies, embracing agility by creating automated products and services, and playing an even greater role in driving business success.
If you want to join this revolution, start learning to code. Understanding the basics—like XML, JSON, CSS, and React components—is becoming essential for modern designers.
In conclusion, the era of the massive UI kit is over. Welcome to the age of the automated, organized and integrated design system.
For more information, please visit Designa at Scale™ – GRID Magazine, where you can find additional relevant articles that explore high-performing teams, self-organising teams of 001, teams of 010, and teams of 100 that deliver the value proposition within a product-led environment.
