Chapter 4 covers how to use AI & Design Systems together to help your org build software faster & at scale without unleashing a tidal wave of AI slop. This chapter is really the heart and soul of this entire course, which is why we’re ecstatic to say it’s (nearly) done!
We organized the chapter videos around the general arc of product design and development: Discovery & Strategy, Experience Design, and Development. Here's the skinny:
- For Discovery & Strategy, we show how AI can be used to analyze the current product state (including DS adoption) and bake the design system into the project strategy right out of the gate.
- For Experience Design, we cover the continued importance of static artifacts and the increasingly important role of prototypes. We talk about prototyping WITHOUT the design system (including the flood of vibe-coded artifacts your CEO or client keeps sending you) and WITH the design system. We now have infinite new design tools to play with, so we help you discern which tools to reach for and when.
- For Development, we cover crossing an important threshold, where we go from exploration into "THIS WORK IS ACTUALLY MEANT TO SHIP." Quality is the name of the game here, and this is where AI & Design Systems together really earn their keep! I'm proud I was able to work in "The Steel Curtain" to describe the line of defense of CI testing, gates, and evals put in place to prevent AI slop and human errors from making their way into production.
- We showcase specific and different ways to keep AI on the rails of your design system, which can be evasive!
- We unpack the different flavors of product work: ongoing feature work, greenfield, legacy adoption, rebrands/rethemes, and more. While each type of product work brings its own considerations, AI & Design Systems help ship quality work that adheres to your hard-earned organizational standards.
We have just a few more demos to release in order to bring this home, and it's important to stress that we designed everything so that we can slot in additional demos as tools, techniques, and demands keep changing! So this is very much alive and will continue to grow and change over time!
We've now arrived at the final living chapters of the course:
- Chapter 5 discusses the emerging future of UX, UI, and product work. We'll frame the broader trends that are unfolding before our very eyes, and over time we’ll bolster these concepts with demos and lessons. This chapter will be very much alive, as the future is currently being born!
- Chapter 6 covers how to operationalize AI & Design Systems at your organization. Again, this will be a living chapter, since we're all navigating these organizational waters right now. This is where our community truly shines; we encourage you to share your journeys, stories, successes, and challenges as you operationalize AI & Design Systems in the course Slack and FigJam. We'll also be soliciting everyone's input at tomorrow’s jam session.
WHEW! We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and are SO EXCITED to bring this course home. Thanks so much for being here, and for your continued patience, support, participation, and feedback. Keep it coming!
— Brad, Ian, and TJ
