Subatomic Design Tokens Course: Chapter 1 now live!

Hey there! Big news: Chapter 1 of our Subatomic Design Tokens Course is live!

Chapter 1 covers important core concepts about design tokens. What problems do design tokens solve? We introduce the concept of the “Multi-All-The-Things” organization; your organization needs to support some unique flavor of: multiple products, brands, frameworks, platforms, redesigns (always!), product families (e.g. marketing sites and enterprise apps), sub-brands, white-labeling, dark mode, and more. Whew, it’s a lot!

Multi-All-The-Things organization: products, brands, frameworks, platforms, redesigns, rebrands, product families, color modes, subbrands, white labeling, campaigns

Not only is this a lot, it’s also super expensive! We dig into the business case for design tokens, and detail what ROI you can expect by establishing a sound token & component system versus doing things the old fashioned way.

A line graph showing the cost difference between using a token & component system vs building components from scratch

We demonstrate how creating token and component systems can help you design & build at scale in order to meet the needs of your Multi-All-The-Things organization.

An image that shows a design token system flowing through a component system in order to achieve a UI result

In addition to all that, we cover the history of themeable user interfaces, design tokens’ origin story (shout out to Jina!), what exactly design tokens are, and where they fit into a broader design system ecosystem.

Screenshot of Thinkific showing the course content for Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Core Concepts - Chapter 1 Introduction - The Problems Design Tokens Solve - The Multi-All-The-Things Organization - The Business Case For Design Tokens - The New Separation of Concerns - The ROI of Design Tokens - The History of Themeable User Interfaces - Design Tokens Origin Story - What Are Design Tokens? - Tokens in Design Tools - Tokens in Code - The Role of Design Tokens in a Design System Ecosystem - Chapter 1 Summary

Reviews are already coming in from people who have preordered the course:

It’s been amazing to watch your preview content and know that you’ll be addressing the code implementation side of tokens. There are plenty of resources out there talking about the basic concepts of design tokens, which I get, but having the words like code package managers, package import to target applications, npm, yarn, etc are the real important stuff to get the tokens working. I love how you’re empowering designers like myself to be on the same playing field with the engineers so we can collaborate. 

I freaking love that cross-disciplinary focus is coming through. After all, that’s what’s needed in order to create successful design token systems.

In addition to the full hour of Chapter 1 material, the course also has over 2 hours of preorder-exclusive video content, several dozen links, and actionable steps you can take while we develop the full course. We also set up a private Slack instance and fun Figjam board for everyone to connect, ask questions, share advice, and nerd out about design tokens.

If any of this sounds good to you, we’d encourage you to preorder the course! You’ll get over 25% off the full price, receive first access to everything (Chapter 2 coming real soon!), and come along the journey with us.

This has been an adventure already, and we’re so pumped to keep the momentum going!