Molly Hellmuth, creator of UI Prep, discusses building design systems with variables in Figma. They explore when to adopt variables, avoiding regretful strategies, favorite Figma plugins, building components in V8 of UI Prep, her journey as an independent creator, and more.
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Quick takeaways
Understanding the unique needs of clients is crucial when building design systems to ensure flexibility for large teams and specific components for smaller teams.
Fully understanding and experimenting with new features like Figma variables before incorporating them into a design system is essential to maximize their potential and avoid regret later on.
Deep dives
Design systems tailored to client needs
The podcast episode discusses the process of building design systems for different clients based on their unique needs and scopes. For large enterprise teams, the focus is on creating flexible components that can be used across multiple products. Smaller teams, however, require more specific components tailored to their specific use cases. The episode emphasizes the importance of understanding the requirements and goals of each client before building their design system.
Approaching updates to design systems
Molly Helmut, the guest in the podcast, shares her approach to updating the UI Prep design system after the introduction of Figma variables. She recommends taking time to fully understand the new features and experiment with them before incorporating them into the system. Molly emphasizes the significance of understanding the limitations and potential of the new features to ensure they are used effectively. She also highlights the importance of iterative and thoughtful implementation to create powerful and intuitive design systems.
Considerations when working with variables
The episode explores various considerations when implementing variables in a design system. Molly discusses the use of color variables as a major update and the challenges of semantic naming and structuring the variables. She also emphasizes the need to keep an open mind as variables are still evolving and new updates may introduce additional changes. The discussion touches upon incorporating number variables, the benefits of their adoption, and the use of plugins to simplify the process. Molly also encourages teams to assess whether variables are the right fit for their system and to start small and gradually expand.
Finding the right balance in design systems
The conversation delves into the challenge of finding the optimal level of complexity in a design system. Molly emphasizes the importance of avoiding over-architecting the system, which can lead to usability issues and hinder the design process. She suggests experimenting with variables and other features in side projects and small steps to understand their potential impact and optimize their use. Molly also advises teams to regularly reassess and adapt their strategies as variables continue to evolve and best practices are established.
In this episode we’re talking with Molly Hellmuth who is the creator of UI Prep where she has an incredible newsletter, design system, and course where she’s taught hundreds of designers all over the world. This discussion gets into the nerdier side of Figma 🤓 We talk all about:
- When it does and doesn’t make sense to adopt variables
- How to make sure you don’t invest in a Figma strategy that you later regret
- Molly’s favorite Figma plugins for design systems
- How she’s building components differently in V8 of her UI Prep design system