zeroheight is the design system management platform used by companies across the globe. From documentation to measurement to automation, zeroheight acts as a central place for you to take your design system from zero to hero.

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The great design system shrink is real. Now that we're through the halcyon days of endless budget and resource on the back of golden promises, it's time to show the results. In 2025, leaders are asking for proof of the value of design systems, while we all still feel under-resourced, and we're being told to do more with less.

Luke, our resident design advocate, and Alan Weibel, UX Architect at Salesforce on the Lightning Design System, will dive into the areas of proving out design systems to leadership, resourcing your team, and knowing what the break points are. How do we convince the business to invest? What roles are non-negotiable? And is it ever possible to do more with less?


Design Systems Report 2025 - Resourcing and convincing leadership

Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF, 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.

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As an apt way to end a very long season one of Design Systems WTF (don't worry, they'll be back later in the year), Michelle and Luke dive into the topic of when to quit. Is there a point where the uphill climb is too steep? Or should we keep on fighting the good fight forever?


Design Systems WTF #42 - When is it time to give up on your design system? (Season One Finale!)

While it seems that a lot of teams are still early in their automation journey, there is clearly a huge appetite for automating a load of what we do with our design systems. From automating the pipeline, to component creation, to creating docs, to docs retrieval, to automated agents, the possibilities are endless. Are they all good ideas, though?

Luke, our resident design advocate, and Farid Sabitov, designops consultant and community tsar, will dive into the good, the bad and the ugly of automation. What areas can we automate today? What tools are out there and what do we have to build ourselves? And in what areas do we need to suck it up and use the manual, human approach?


Design Systems Report 2025 - Automating our design systems

Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF, 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.

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Inspired by a suggested topic from Jeremy Keith - "What is a greater threat to designers - AI or Design Systems?" we thought we'd dive into the often touted myth that design systems are the death of true design. With tools coming out now that promise no more Figma, are traditional UI designers at danger? Or is it all just another arrow in our collective quivers as product people?


Design Systems WTF #41 - Will design systems replace designers?

Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF, 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.

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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?


Design Systems WTF #40 - Can you actually measure the ROI of a component?

A common theme throughout the Design Systems Report was communication. Whether it’s establishing strong buy-in with leaders, or educating the organization to drive adoption, it feels like we’re still relatively early on in our journey to figuring out how to speak about our design systems. At the same time, communication gets deprioritized when we’re resource-constrained, so how do we make time to advocate for our work?

Luke, our resident design advocate, and Andressa Lombardo, Principal Design Systems Designer at Teamwork, will dive into community and communication. What are some of the challenges that teams are facing today with building community and communicating about the design system? Are there best practices for starting your journey? Are there common pitfalls that folks fall prey to?


Design Systems Report 2025 - Communication as the unlock for adoption

One of the top trends of this year's Design Systems Report is that we're maturing at a heartening pace. Design system teams are becoming more commonplace, we're happier with our implementations, and we're finding time to invest in the technologies that will help us succeed. Even the growing pains we’re having indicate design systems are moving into the next stage toward being a natural component of any modern product organization. So what does that future hold?

Luke, our resident design advocate, and Ben Callahan, founder of Sparkbox and host of The Question, will dust off their crystal balls and dive into the future of design systems. What does our future look like? What challenges do we still need to overcome? How can we come together as an industry to make sure our future is as promising as it can be?


Design Systems Report 2025 - The Road to Mass Adoption

Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF, 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.

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The age old question – should designers know how to code? Or more specifically, how much should designer know when it comes to code? Considering it's the medium that we're designing for, it's still surprising how much this topic splits opinion. Luke and Michelle will dive into the pros and cons, and give some practical advice if you did want to delve into the witchcraft that engineers do.


Design Systems WTF #39 - Should designers know how to code?

Live recording of the fortnightly podcast Design Systems WTF, 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.

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Making your design system as inclusive as possible is something that I think we all agree on. However, for most systems teams, this means creating some accessibility guidelines and then ticking it off the list. Is this enough? Is there more we can be doing?


Design Systems WTF #38 - Are accessibility guidelines enough to be inclusive?

Sometimes we may feel the urge to include everything in our documentation, to the point where it rivals Lord of the Rings for length and density. However, we may be doing ourselves a disservice! How much is too much documentation? How much is not enough documentation? Do we even need documentation at all? join us for the last Design Systems WTF of the year!

zeroheight: <https://bit.ly/3DEvORN>

Find us on social:

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Design Systems WTF #34: How much is too much documentation?

Design systems should sit in the design team. Design systems should sit in the designops team. Design systems should sit in their own team. There are so many different options that are presented as the ‘truth’ when it comes to design systems and org design. Michelle and Luke wade through the options, weigh up their merits and probably tear the entire thing down to the ground by the end of the half-hour.

zeroheight: <https://bit.ly/3DEvORN>

Find us on social:

Bluesky: <https://bsky.app/profile/zeroheight.com>

LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeroheight/](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeroheight)

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Design Systems WTF #33: Where should design systems sit in your org?

When we’re building our design systems for success, we usually look at the components and processes as the answer to good adoption. However, building community around your design system has been proven to be an essential ingredient to scaling a design system.

In this panel discussion, we’ll cover off why community building is integral to success, some of the tactics you can use to start on your community-building efforts, and open it up to your questions for our esteemed panel.

NOTES

Mythic Quest scene - <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZzKs9HDaTc>

Blog post - We Don't Do That Here - <https://thagomizer.com/blog/2017/09/29/we-don-t-do-that-here.html>

Blog Post - Make 2024 the year of Maximum Enthusiasm - [https://semi-rad.com/2024/01/make-2024-the-year-of-maximum-enthusiasm/](https://semi-rad.com/2024/01/make-2024-the-year-of-maximum-enthusiasm)

Erin online - <https://erin.bio>

Natalya on Bluesky - <https://bsky.app/profile/natalyathree.bsky.social>

Luke on Bluesky - <https://bsky.app/profile/lurkmoophy.bsky.social>

zeroheight: <https://bit.ly/3DEvORN>

Find us on social:

Bluesky: <https://bsky.app/profile/zeroheight.com>

LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeroheight/](https://www.linkedin.com/company/zeroheight)

Instagram: <https://www.instagram.com/zeroheighthq>


Building community for your design system: Why community and planning for success

DS Live is a new webinar series from zeroheight where we invite the best speakers from around the world to deliver talks on design systems, and everything that goes on around them, with live Q\&A after the talk.

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For the first DS Live, we're inviting our very own design advocate, Luke Murphy, to deliver their talk on Building Delight into your Design System, where they will cover off what it actually means to build delightful products, and how we can integrate that into our design systems work day-to-day.


DS Live: Luke Murphy - Building Delight into your Design System

DS Live is a new webinar series from zeroheight where we invite the best speakers from around the world to deliver talks on design systems, and everything that goes on around them, with live Q\&A after the talk.

***

For the second DS Live, we're inviting Daniel Henderson-Ede, Principal Consultant at Mantis & Co, to deliver their talk on how design systems and accessibility teams can work closer together.

Design systems are powerful tools, but they’re often underutilized when it comes to accessibility. This session will dive into how accessibility and design systems teams can collaborate to overcome mutual challenges. Attendees will gain practical strategies to break down silos, improve collaboration, and create better, more inclusive digital products. Whether you’re part of an accessibility team, a design system leader, or a product designer, this session will provide insights to help you make accessibility scalable, sustainable, and impactful.
