Bridging the Communication Gap in Web Development - Kevin Coyle (Converge 2023)

Converge is zeroheight’s one-day design systems conference. On September 21st, 2023, we hosted Converge UK in Manchester at the Stoller Hall! Converge aims to bring together some of the brightest and best in design systems and design ops to discuss the challenges we face in taking design systems to the next level.

Kevin Coyle (He/Him) Big Medium

From the rhythmic clatter of a lone developer’s IBM keyboard in a dimly-lit cubicle office to the overwhelming complexity of large Scrum teams comprising frontend specialists, backend engineers, scrum masters, and product managers, the landscape of web development has undergone a dramatic evolution. This change has led to increasing siloization, creating divisions among product management, frontend and backend development, and design. As a result, communication has, in some cases, become a formidable barrier. Simple issues can lead to hours-long meetings, where presentations are painstakingly reinterpreted and translated for different interest groups, resulting in wasted time and mounting frustration. In this talk, we’ll explore how we got to this point and what tools have aided us along the way, including the invention of design systems for taxonomy and tools that serve as translation layers between developers and designers. Finally, and most intriguingly, we’ll delve into the exciting new developments in artificial intelligence. We’ll investigate whether AI could be the missing link that not only streamlines our workflows but also fosters more effective human-to-human communication.

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