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AMA: Brad Frost, Web Designer

7 years ago from Brad Frost, Brad Frost Web

  • Taron GhazaryanTaron Ghazaryan, 7 years ago

    Hey Brad,

    I know you're a big proponent of web styleguides, but I haven't read your thoughts on the following. Our styleguide has enabled us to build and design pages relatively quickly. We've also seen huge usability and egnagement gains thanks to it. The trouble I've been running into lately is updating fundamental elements of the styleguide.

    Simple things like buttons and forms are easy to update visually. Where I run into trouble is in things like our grid, type sizes, etc. Any change to those fundamentals requires a redesign of a lot of our pages. For example, bumping the default font size from 14px to 16px would break a lot of pages. Changing the grid width from 960px to a fluid grid or even a wider grid will break a lot of pages.

    How do you deal with updating a design system while dealing with engineering constraints?

    0 points
    • Brad FrostBrad Frost, 7 years ago

      Hey Taron, Thanks for your question.

      For example, bumping the default font size from 14px to 16px would break a lot of pages. Changing the grid width from 960px to a fluid grid or even a wider grid will break a lot of pages.

      Yeah I mean those are big changes that impact the entirety of the experience. Making changes of that scope will no doubt take time, thought, and effort. But I'd say those types of changes should rarely happen. If you find yourself making such significant changes frequently, I'd say there's probably something bigger going on that's worth exploring.

      0 points