Level Up Your Design System Experience for 2024


Reading time: around 2 minutes

As the holiday season and end of the year approaches, you might be thinking about what you’ll be doing differently in the new year. For those of you who want to level up your design system knowledge, here’s a roundup of some great ways to do that from some of my own products as well as others’ too.

My Make Design Systems People Want to Use course at Design System University is getting a little long in the tooth, so I’ll be replacing/updating it soon. It’s regularly $499, but I’ll drop it to $99 starting on Black Friday (November 24) until the end of Cyber Monday (November 27) as one last push before it hits the shelves.

My 1-2 punch courses of How to Use a Design System in Figma and How to Use a Design System in Code are both $9 until the end of Cyber Monday (November 27), when they’ll go back up to $29.

My new design system book Design That Scales is available for pre-order for 15% off the full price. It’ll jump to full price when it’s released on November 29.

My most advanced and thorough training is my Design System in 90 Days program. The first live cohort is wrapping up in a few weeks and has been transformative for the people running design systems at organizations like The Obama Foundation, ConvertKit, Scholastic, Handshake, and more. The next cohort will start in February; if you’re interested in that, subscribe on that landing page for updates about that.

Related, if you’re more of a DIY person and want the knowledge and steps without the group discussions, you can get the workbook directly. It’s regularly $399, but I’ll drop it to $349 starting on Black Friday (November 24) until the end of Cyber Monday (November 27).

The latest cohort of Joey Banks’ amazing Level Up with Figma course starts on November 27. Joey also has a very generous offer where he’ll cut the price in half if you’ve been laid off and DM him on Twitter to let him know that.

Molly Helmuth’s Design System Bootcamp starts on January 8th, and it’s a perfect way to start the year leveling up your design system experience. I’m also a guest speaker in Molly’s course, so you’ll get to spend some time there with me too. If you’re interested, you can use my special code of DANMALL100 at checkout for $100 off.

DS Events collects lots of free and paid events happening in the world of design systems.

Figma just announced the next Config event, happening in San Francisco on June 26–27, 2024. There’s bound to be loads of design system content there; here’s my talk from the 2023 event.

Into Design Systems announced their next event: a 3-day online conference on May 15–17, 2024.

Hope that helps you figure out lots of different ways you can level up your design system game!

—Dan

📰 Latest News

🍬 I just finished watching Love & Death, and wow, what whirlwind of a story that was. I only recently learned that Candy on Hulu is the same story, so I may watch that next.

📅 Earlier this week, I ran a free webinar about design system planning. If you missed it, you can catch the replay on YouTube.

💬 Feedback

How’d you like today’s email?

👍 Loved it / 👎 Hated it

Dan Mall Teaches

I teach designers how to get the respect they deserve. I share tips, tricks, and tools about design systems, process, and leadership.

Read more from Dan Mall Teaches

Reading time: around 7 minutes This article is part of a 4-part series brought to you by Wix Studio about running valuable projects that grow your clients’ businesses and yours too. Wix Studio is a platform built for agencies and enterprises to create exceptional websites at scale. If you're looking for smart design capabilities and flexible dev tools, Wix Studio is the tool for you. When agencies think about their dream projects, they’re often thinking about this combination: Projects that...

Reading time: around 1 minute The quickest way to get promoted is to get your boss promoted. Do something that makes them look amazing to the people that are evaluating their work. Making your boss look good gives you the highest likelihood that they’ll bring you along with them in rank and/or compensation as they move up too. How do you get your boss promoted? Find out what their job depends on, and tie your job directly to theirs. Here are some ways to find that out: Ask. Talk to your...

Reading time: around 1 minute Design systems promise 3 main things: efficiency, consistency, and innovation. I always like to add a fourth: relief. If your design system is working well, the work gets easier. You finish it faster. You start to see economies of scale. But relief isn’t something that just happens. It’s there for the taking, but you have to actively choose it. Here’s a scenario that happens often with design system teams I work with. After weeks or months of hard design system...