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Design Systems WTF

zeroheight

A podcast from zeroheight.

Let’s be honest, design systems are full of choice wtf moments. Michelle and Luke, two of our resident design advocates, are attempting to combat this with a new regular series, where they answer a single question around design system troubles every two weeks. 

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  • 24 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 42 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • S2 · E45
    Dec 23, 2025 · 32 min

    Are we reducing complexity with design systems??

    Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF (back for season two!), where Luke Murphy and Michelle Chin attempt to combat all the amazing wtf in design systems. In each episode, they answer a single question around design system troubles with a Q&A from the live audience. Time to get spicy... One of the big promises of the hype of design systems was that it would reduce organizational and product complexity by providing efficient, replicable ways of doing things. Now that we've bedded in, its time to ask - how much do design systems actually reduce complexity? Do they just reorganize and make complexity more palatable? Show notes Product Deep Dive on Systematizing your Documentation Michelle’s article on structuring your design systems

  • S2 · E44
    Dec 9, 2025 · 46 min

    Episode 44 - Should we care about consistency?

    Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF (back for season two!), where Luke Murphy and Michelle Chin attempt to combat all the amazing wtf in design systems. In each episode, they answer a single question around design system troubles with a Q&A from the live audience. A bit of a deep topic this week – how important is consistency as a concept to be aiming for with design systems? Obviously, it's one of our design systems' selling points, but in a world where we're moving more and more towards browserless, how important is component consistency, or can we see a place where foundational consistency is all we need? Show notes A List Apart - Design Dialects: Breaking the rules, not the system Vinted - Greenhouse

  • S2 · E1
    Nov 25, 2025 · 39 min

    Are we finally at the point of contextual documentation?

    Season 2 Episode 1 Design Systems WTF is the fortnightly podcast where Luke Murphy and Michelle Chin attempt to combat all the amazing wtf in design systems. In each episode, they answer a single question around design system troubles with Q&A from the live audience. We took a few months off and y'all went and changed everything... We dive into the wonderful world of contextual design systems. Do MCPs finally offer what we need to make our design systems serve information up contextually? Are there major things we need to refactor? Or is it all smoke and mirrors? Show notes: Knowledge graphs article from Chase Luke’s talk on Contextual Documentation Converge videos DS Live with TJ Pitre TJ Pitre on LinkedIn

  • S1 · E40
    Jun 2, 2025 · 24 min

    Can you actually measure the ROI of a component?

    Selling the value of your design system to folks who don't necessarily understand it is a difficult and thankless task. But are we trying to sell in the right things? Is it possible to put the value of our design system against the bottom line, and how far down the stack can we go? Can we actually put a dollar sign against a single component?

Showing 21–24 of 24 episodes