In this podcast episode, Rob Ocel chats with Kathleen McMahon, a senior design systems engineer at Northwestern Mutual and a key contributor to the W3C Design Tokens Community Group.
Kathleen McMahon kicks off the conversation by defining design systems as versatile collections of patterns and efficiencies that streamline workflows in design and engineering. She emphasizes that design systems can encompass diverse elements, such as design patterns, component libraries, CSS frameworks, and more, tailored to the unique needs of a company or product. The focus isn't on rigidity but rather on promoting consistency and efficiency while allowing flexibility for innovation.
The dialogue then shifts to Kathleen's role as a design systems engineer and the dynamic nature of her work, influenced by factors like team size and company maturity. Kathleen shares her experiences in both small, multifaceted teams and larger, specialized teams at Northwestern Mutual. She provides insights into the varied responsibilities, from creating design tokens and components to ensuring accessibility and collaborating with diverse stakeholders.
Rob and Kathleen delve into the invaluable role of design systems in simplifying workflows for designers and developers. Kathleen highlights how design systems liberate creative energy by offering reusable patterns, enabling teams to focus on solving more complex problems. They also explore the strategic decision of whether to build a design system within a specific framework or keep it framework-agnostic, shedding light on the considerations and potential challenges associated with third-party component libraries.
The episode culminates with a discussion of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) and its pivotal role in enhancing accessibility within design systems. Kathleen discusses the opportunities and challenges of leveraging libraries like Adobe's React ARIA hooks for accessibility.
This episode is sponsored by This Dot Labs.
S06E6 Modern Web Podcast - A Look into Node's Mentor Program with Ahmad Bamieh, Benjamin Coe, Jennifer Bland, Princiya Sequeira, and Tracy Lee
S06E5 Modern Web Podcast - The Latest Updates in ReactJS with Nate Hunzaker and Philipp Spiess
S06E4 Modern Web Podcast - Vue Updates with Chris Fitz, Jake Dohm, and Rob Ocel
S06E3 Modern Web Podcast - All About Compilers with Minko Gechev, Kristofer Baxter, Radoslav Kirov, Jake Dohm, and Rob Ocel
S06E2 Modern Web Podcast - What's Up With GraphQL 2019 with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, Tanmai Gopal, and Uri Goldshtein
S06E1 What is AMP and why you should care with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, Ben Morss, Prateek Bhatnagar, and Kristofer Baxter
S05E20 Browser Standards with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, and Dominic Farolino
S05E19 Angular Updates with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, and Core Team Members Hans Larsen and Ben Lesh
S05E18 Webint with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, Stephanie Drescher, and Anton Molleda Quintana
S05E17 Houdini with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, Surma, Aimee Knight, and Vitalii Bobrov
S05E16 RxJS with Tracy Lee, Rob Ocel, OJ Kwon, and Ben Lesh
S05E15 NativeScript with Tracy Lee, Nathan Walker, TJ VanToll, and Stanimira Vlaeva
S05E14 CSS with Tracy Lee, Jake Dohm, Aimee Knight, and Chris DeMars
S05E13 Neurotech and Machine Learning in JavaScript with Tracy Lee, Alex Castillo, Robert Plummer, and Jeff Mahoney
S05E12 Testing with Jay Phelps, Kent C Dodds and Gil Tayar
S05E11 Preact with Ben Lesh, Tracy Lee, Prateek Bhatnagar, Jason Miller, and Zouhir Chahoud
S05E10 V8 with Jay Phelps, Benedikt Meurer, Mathias Bynens, and Jaroslav Sevcik
S05E09 Tech Diversity with Tara Manicsic, Sarah Federman, and Deanna Leavitt
S05E08 Blockchain with Preethi Kasireddy, Kyle Simpson, Nik Kalyani, Fred Schott and Tracy Lee
S05E07 Topics in React with Michael Jackson, Ben Lesh, Jay Phelps, and Tracy Lee
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