I stopped making users translate their design system
The product should do the archaeology before it asks a designer to fill in the gaps.
- Loopy
- Source-first onboarding
Loopy's first design-system setup asked too much of the person using it. I changed the flow to start with evidence from Figma, a website, or a published Storybook, then show what was found and what was still uncertain.
I also replaced agent nicknames with role titles such as senior designer, principal designer, and UX researcher. Clients should not need our internal lore to understand who is doing what.
The lesson was annoyingly obvious: clever systems feel simple only when the system carries the translation work.