Matt Bailey attended Schema 2022 conference in London and shared his impressions. All of the talks are already available on YouTube, so check out Matt’s summaries to see if something piques your interest.

Recordings from all three Schema 2022 conferences are now available — London, Tokyo, and New York. (Virtual event streamed select talks from physical locations.) Some of the speaker decks are also available in the Community.

“Playing constant catch up, adding prop after prop to support and maintain too many cases? Break larger components into flexible subcomponents so that users can solve their unique problems themselves. We’ll show how to architect subcomponents, leverage Figma’s improving component features, embrace opportunities and challenges the approach creates for your system.”

“Component properties launched at Config earlier this year, but was over a year in the making. Essentially React properties for Figma components, ​“props” removes the guesswork out of your design system and better aligns design components with code. Join the tech leads of the project for a behind the scenes look into how the feature came together, the power it unlocks for your design system, and a look into some of the exciting updates we’ve made post launch.”

“Design systems are drivers of cultural change disguised as a component library — getting your org to commit to this change often requires influencing across all levels from designers to VPs. In doing so, you’ll rely on skills like communication and relationship building, in order to expand your system of allies. In this talk, I’ll share mistakes and lessons learned along the way and offer ideas to help you navigate the challenges of design systems buy-in and advocacy.”

“At Uber, we’ve built a cross-platform design system with hundreds of thousands of weekly Figma inserts and an accompanying super plugin. But like everyone, we started with only a few components and multiple one-off plugins. We’ve carefully matured our design system through data and heart. Yet it hasn’t been straightforward. There’s a constant tension between what designers and developers need and how we interpret data. These growing pains only seem to get worse the more a system evolves. In this session, we’ll show you that data and heart don’t have to be at odds as we share how we mature our design system and plugins. Through demos of AI-driven tooling, we’ll explore the role data can play in the future and help your team scale your system by balancing numbers with heart.”

“Designing and building mobile native design systems can be tough. Different devices, different languages, and different conventions can make it challenging to get started and stay consistent. In this talk, the DoorDash design system team will share what they have learned about navigating these challenges: their process, their past mistakes, and how they move forward when building the robust native component library that powers the #1 food delivery app.”

“Roadmaps are a valuable tool in the product development toolkit: they shape a body of work by clearly communicating the projects, priority, and scope required to complete that work. Unfortunately, not every design systems team has the luxury of being staffed like a product development team, with a dedicated PM to drive the roadmap. In this talk, I’ll share how our scrappy design systems team at Credit Karma co-created a design systems roadmap with our internal community to bring confidence, clarity and focus to our work.”

“Whether you’re building a design systems program from the ground up, evolving an existing charter, or joining an established team, the best way to build trust with your future consumers, team, and organization is a cross-disciplinary sentiment analysis. And, if done right, the output can become the perfect foundation for an initial set of goals to inform your roadmap. Building this trust early will ensure that you can build the system they want (by delivering the system they need).”

“As Design Systems grow and evolve, so does the complexity. With complexity comes the need for newer best practices and adoption of more rigorous controls of our system. What can we as designers learn from other disciplines best practices, and how can we adopt them to ensure that our design systems grow in the right way?”

Figma Product Manager Jacob Miller’s keynote at Schema Conference on navigating the increasing complexity of design systems and what we can learn from the world of code.

At the recent All-Hands call Sho Kuwamoto confirmed that Figma is working on design tokens. Schema Conference seems to be a perfect moment to announce them, so fingers crossed!

“This year we’re taking Schema by Figma, our annual design systems conference, on the road to host three in-person events in New York, London, and Tokyo, as well as a virtual event for the location agnostic. With so much to look forward to, we wanted to get our community prepped and primed with a sneak peek of the themes and talks our team is especially excited to see.”

Figma’s conference dedicated to design systems this year goes global and will happen in New York (Oct 26), Tokyo (Nov 2), and London (Nov 9). Bummed I can’t make it to NYC on this date, but it’s also available as a free virtual event on November 16. The number of live attendees is limited, so apply early!

Announced at Schema 2021, this is a new tool that helps you visualize Material You’s dynamic color and create a custom Material Design 3 theme. With built-in code export, it’s easy to migrate to Material’s new color system and take advantage of dynamic color. Don’t miss the article Introducing Material Theme Builder.

Pretty cool to see the backstage of the production. Schema wasn’t a typical Zoom conference.

“Ever wonder how other companies set up their Figma files? Joel Miller from Figma will take us behind the scenes and provide tips, tricks, and examples you can implement today.” See also a Twitter thread with all the resources that Joel shared.

Patrick Banta compiled a list of design system resources recommended during Schema.

Heldiney Pereira, Monzo. ​“We all spend time reflecting on structures of design systems, but have we invested enough understanding the governance of those systems? Join Heldiney as he digs into the different models available to run and scale design systems globally.”

Hugo Raymond, Burberry. ​“How can we better understand the context of our Design Systems among our broader product teams? Join us to learn Burberry’s approach, including how to best work with engineers, standardise and understand shared context for reusability, and how to think about both strict and loose frameworks of adoption.”