Design systems - what are they and is your institution ready for one?

Ayala is Associate Director for Digital User Experience and also headed the OneWeb digital transformation programme at the University of Southampton. Jargon aside, Ayala is responsible for the countless conversations, collaborations and compromises that are helping the University reimagine and redesign its services in a user-centric way. Ayala believes that making life easier for users makes life easier for everyone. The key to successful audience engagement lies in understanding their needs and meeting these in the way they expect. Beyond user-centred design and digital transformation, Ayala’s passions include reading, long walks, watching her data, and putting up with whoever has control of the family music channel!

Brad Frost is a design system consultant, front-end developer, speaker, writer, and musician located in beautiful Pittsburgh, PA. As a principal and technical consultant at Big Medium, he helps teams establish and evolve design systems, establish more collaborative workflows, and create better software together.. He is the author of the book Atomic Design, which introduces a methodology to create and maintain effective design systems. He co-hosted the Style Guides Podcast and has helped create several tools and resources for web designers, including Pattern Lab, Styleguides.io, Style Guide Guide, This Is Responsive, Death to Bullshit, and more

Last year I joined Government Digital Services as an Interaction Designer, having previously worked in Service Design at the Gambling Commission. I have spent the last 5 years championing accessibility. By doing the hard work to make services simple, everyone should be able to access digital services, regardless of their technical capability, location or disabilities. It's only when we understand user needs that we can effectively design for them. Having a world leading design system helps us do all of these things and do them well.

As the Graphic Design Manager and Design System Product Owner at the University of Edinburgh, I have a strong passion for integrating human-centred approaches into my work. By using this approach to guide my strategy and decision-making, I've been able to help the University embark on a journey to create a Design System three years ago.

I'm excited about the potential impact and benefit that Design Systems can bring to Higher Education, and I'm eager to share my experience and knowledge with others. By harnessing Design Systems and adopting UX principles and approaches, higher education institutions can create digital platforms that are intuitive, user-friendly, and accessible to all users. This, in turn, helps to create a consistent and cohesive brand image. By eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel, Design Systems allow us time to focus on what really matters for users and end-users.

Stephen is the Digital Communications team leader at the University of St Andrews. He is responsible for managing a team responsible for standardising, simplifying and consolidating the University website presence. A key part of their work is an in-house digital pattern library that the team developed.

I began my content design journey with the Digital User Experience team at the University of Southampton in 2020. Up until then, I had been managing the University's core social media channels and strategy, where I learned that listening to your audience is more important than talking at them.

Having experienced first-hand what a bit of empathy can do for a young, neurodivergent person struggling through their degree, I care deeply about making life easier for others. The best thing about this job is ending the day with a feeling that you did your part to help people do the things they've set out to do.