Play as a part of memorable design system culture

Work on the design system often happens out of the spotlight and often goes with it, a sense never ending advocacy. For some of us at times it may feel as a lonely journey or a marathon. Burnout can arrive quickly, disengagement from the team even faster. That’s why it matters to identify the culture and where it must shift inside the company to bring an experience that allows design systems not only to last but also to thrive.

Rituals have always been playing an important role when forming any culture. They can support the creative work, enable connection and gratitude at the end of the day. But most importantly, build a unique and memorable experience that may lead to a sense of belonging within your tribe.

illustration of a swing set

It is only lonely if you let it be

By now it is no surprise that the design system is a team sport, and adoption, shared ownership, and contribution are significant. When enthusiasm and the energy inside the team drops it is worth digging into the core of the problem. Mine led me to observe a common pattern: fear and self-doubt.

Getting on board, memorizing, or simply learning and reflecting on the design system does not always come equally easy to each of us. Being a newbie often provides you with a lot of stress and expectations that you build upon yourself. You may think that within a week you might have all the answers and know the system by heart and if you don’t understand what is connected with what then maybe there is something wrong with you.

Instead of letting our teams (consumers of the design system) feel lost and lonely, what we need to do is get better at creating a culture that is welcoming and memorable. That can provide you with fun and release, rather than a list of never ending expectations and built up tensions. And when the energy is low and time is sensitive, we need to become clever about it.

The idea of how to create a culture of belonging led me to study familiar playful activities which you can easily inject into the daily life of your teams.

illustration of a slide

Creating moments of courage with play

Studies have proven that play also for adults can relieve stress, stimulate the mind and boost creativity, improve your connection to others, and help to see problems in new ways. There is a strong link between fun and productivity.

If a boost on playfulness is what could help to tame fear and inject more courage (e.g. for strengthening bonds and increasing adoption), then give it a go! But how can we introduce play into the design systems practice and nudge the culture?

A quick DS oriented icebreaker used during a design stand-up or before a workshop can provide you with some quick insights without affecting anybody’s schedule. You can use those to open the path for incremental improvements in the system and your processes. Or even learn what your team is grateful for. By doing it regularly, you make sure that you stay up to date with the state of your team and can form a part of a team’s health check.

Playing memory games with cards filled with design tokens and components or running a quiz during a team event on naming conventions can promote fun onboarding experiences for everyone. Naming can at times be difficult or frustrating and can take time for people to adapt to conventions, so this can help keep it light and be a good aid for retention.

“Time for the truth” (cards with questions aiming to bring feedback) can create a space for open conversation around your work. You empower your peers to pick the card, and in return they receive a spark of excitement by doing so.

Letting the team write wishes for the design system and allowing a ‘Secret Santa’ to take care of it, not only makes your direct users feel involved in the roadmap planning, but at the same time you engage the entire team in being a part of the change, and a part of the system.

These are just some of the examples of the activities that you can try. Educating ourselves about design systems doesn’t have to be boring, and certainly does not have to happen alone. Asking for user feedback doesn’t have to feel like a never ending survey that happens once per year and takes too much of everybody’s time anyway. We can all learn that delivering improvements into the libraries is a shared responsibility. It’s also easy to become entrenched in the work we’re doing and lose sight of it being about empowering our colleagues to do great work.

illustration of a see-saw

Reborn by mindful interactivity

Creating playful interactions and serving them as rituals, opens the door to strengthening the design system culture, but also the skill set of each of us. Bringing people to be a part of your process can allow everyone to be better at their jobs, while at the same time help us bond and have a good laugh with each other.

Games and icebreakers can be easily customized to the needs of the teams, and everyone can get engaged in providing new content for the next round. Having them as a part of how the team works can open the door for more ideas of how play can be a part of the process.

But we have to be also mindful of how we set it up. Not every game will be suitable for every team or individual. Understanding and taking into account your audience’s preferences and personalities is a must. Creating a safe space is rule number one.

Forming a design system culture that fosters gratitude, open feedback, understanding of each other, with an empowerment for change can lead to a greater feeling of belonging. Creating moments of courage can create adoption and contribution.

This playground is just an opening to a world of positive experiences we can offer our teams. Often the aspect of new, other times the thrill behind the surprise, but most of all the laughter through shared experiences is what helps us to adapt quicker.

Our memory works based on emotions. Both tragic and happy ones can create experiences that lead to resistance or curiosity. So which kind of memorable design system experience would you choose to create?

Try out some of the activities for yourselves:

• Design systems orients icebreaker (Miro)
• Memory games (Figma)
• Time for the truth (Miro)