Understanding the Impact of Well-Built Design Systems with Ben Callahan - S4, Ep. 8

In this episode, we are joined by Ben Callahan, founder of Sparkbox and a leading figure in UX strategy with over 13 years of experience. Ben's expertise in creating impactful user experiences and fostering collaboration has earned him great respect in the design community. As a speaker, author, and design system coach, he continues to drive industry innovation.

Discussion Points :

• Can you walk us through your career journey and share some insights? 1:29
• How do you go about educating others on the benefits of a design system? 5:05
• How do you recommend implementing a design system? Is an independent code base, a Figma file, or a tool that hosts the design system the best approach? 8:11
• Rapid fire round 13:58
• Can you share your journey from your early experiences and childhood to your current role at Sparkbox, and how these experiences have shaped your career? 18:09
• How do you convince engineering teams to invest in design systems, given that many see it as just a design responsibility? 24:29

Show notes

• I quickly fell in love with design and user experience. I kind of left that role and jumped out on my own to explore that opportunity a little bit more.
• We spend a lot of time with them thinking about education, helping everybody inside the organization understand what a system is, why it's important, and what it means for them.
• We've done some interesting studies to show, just from an efficiency standpoint, how much of an impact a system can have when it's built well and is being used. The numbers are quite staggering.
• I think of design systems not as a product, but as a program that has to exist inside an organization. When they're done well, they really become the way we build digital interfaces.
• Two-thirds of the effort is in writing really good documentation and training people to understand that's where they go to get the answers they need.
• I've got so many insights from people who are out there in the trenches doing this work on a daily basis. If you have questions or ideas on how this work can be done, or if you just need a community of people who can help support you through difficult times, that's really what this is becoming.

Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bencallahan/ 
Company’s Website: https://sparkbox.com/ 
Personal Website: https://bencallahan.com/
The Question: https://bencallahan.com/the-question -

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