“Language is just not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, guidelines, and meanings; it’s a completely coherent system certain to context and habits.” — Kenneth L. Pike
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The net has accents. So ought to our design programs.
Design Programs as Dwelling Languages#section2
Design programs aren’t part libraries—they’re residing languages. Tokens are phonemes, parts are phrases, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we construct with customers turn into the tales our merchandise inform.
However right here’s what we’ve forgotten: the extra fluently a language is spoken, the extra accents it could assist with out shedding which means. English in Scotland differs from English in Sydney, but each are unmistakably English. The language adapts to context whereas preserving core which means. This couldn’t be extra apparent to me, a Brazilian Portuguese speaker, who discovered English with an American accent, and lives in Sydney.
Our design programs should work the identical means. Inflexible adherence to visible guidelines creates brittle programs that break below contextual stress. Fluent programs bend with out breaking.
Consistency turns into a jail
The promise of design programs was easy: constant parts would speed up improvement and unify experiences. However as programs matured and merchandise grew extra complicated, that promise has turn into a jail. Groups file “exception” requests by the lots of. Merchandise launch with workarounds as a substitute of system parts. Designers spend extra time defending consistency than fixing consumer issues.
Our design programs should be taught to talk dialects.
A design dialect is a scientific adaptation of a design system that maintains core ideas whereas creating new patterns for particular contexts. In contrast to one-off customizations or model themes, dialects protect the system’s important grammar whereas increasing its vocabulary to serve completely different customers, environments, or constraints.
When Good Consistency Fails#section3
At Reserving.com, I discovered this lesson the onerous means. We A/B-tested every thing—shade, copy, button shapes, even brand colours. As an expert with a graphic design training and expertise constructing model type guides, I discovered this stunning. Whereas everybody fell in love with Airbnb’s pristine design system, Reserving grew into an enormous with out ever contemplating visible consistency.
The chaos taught me one thing profound: consistency isn’t ROI; solved issues are.
At Shopify. Polaris (https://polaris-react.shopify.com/) was our crown jewel—a mature design language excellent for retailers on laptops. As a product workforce, we have been anticipated to undertake Polaris as-is. Then my achievement workforce hit an “Oh, Ship!” second, as we confronted the problem of constructing an app for warehouse pickers utilizing our interface on shared, battered Android scanners in dim aisles, sporting thick gloves, scanning dozens of things per minute, many with restricted ranges of English understanding.
Process completion with customary Polaris: 0%.
Each part that labored superbly for retailers failed utterly for pickers. White backgrounds created glare. 44px faucet targets have been invisible to gloved fingers. Sentence-case labels took too lengthy to parse. Multi-step flows confused non-native audio system.
We confronted a alternative: abandon Polaris completely, or train it to talk warehouse.
The Beginning of a Dialect#section4
We selected evolution over revolution. Working inside Polaris’s core ideas—readability, effectivity, consistency—we developed what we now name a design dialect:
| Constraint | Fluent Transfer | Rationale |
| Glare & low mild | Darkish surfaces + mild textual content | Cut back glare on low-DPI screens |
| Gloves & haste | 90px faucet targets (~2cm) | Accommodate thick gloves |
| Multilingual | Single-task screens, plain language | Cut back cognitive load |
Outcome: Process completion jumped from 0% to 100%. Onboarding time dropped from three weeks to at least one shift.
This wasn’t customization or theming—this was a dialect: a scientific adaptation that maintained Polaris’s core grammar whereas creating new vocabulary for a selected context. Polaris hadn’t failed; it had discovered to talk warehouse.
The Flexibility Framework#section5
At Atlassian, engaged on the Jira platform—itself a system inside the bigger Atlassian system—I pushed for formalizing this perception. With dozens of merchandise sharing a design language throughout completely different codebases, we wanted systematic flexibility so we constructed instantly into our methods of working. The outdated mannequin—exception requests and particular approvals—was failing at scale.
We developed the Flexibility Framework to assist designers outline how versatile they wished their parts to be:
| Tier | Motion | Possession |
| Constant | Undertake unchanged | Platform locks design + code |
| Opinionated | Adapt inside bounds | Platform gives good defaults, merchandise customise |
| Versatile | Lengthen freely | Platform defines habits, merchandise personal presentation |
Throughout a navigation redesign, we tiered each ingredient. Brand and international search stayed Constant. Breadcrumbs and contextual actions grew to become Versatile. Product groups might instantly see the place innovation was welcome and the place consistency mattered.
The Determination Ladder#section6
Flexibility wants boundaries. We created a easy ladder for evaluating when guidelines ought to bend:
Good: Ship with current system parts. Quick, constant, confirmed.
Higher: Stretch a part barely. Doc the change. Contribute enhancements again to the system for all to make use of.
Finest: Prototype the best expertise first. If consumer testing validates the profit, replace the system to assist it.
The important thing query: “Which choice lets customers succeed quickest?”
Guidelines are instruments, not relics.
Unity Beats Uniformity#section7
Gmail, Drive, and Maps are unmistakably Google—but every speaks with its personal accent. They obtain unity via shared ideas, not cloned parts. One further week of debate over button shade prices roughly $30K in engineer time.
Unity is a model final result; fluency is a consumer final result. When the 2 conflict, facet with the consumer.
Governance With out Gates#section8
How do you keep coherence whereas enabling dialects? Deal with your system like a residing vocabulary:
Doc each deviation – e.g., dialects/warehouse.md with earlier than/after screenshots and rationale.
Promote shared patterns – when three groups undertake a dialect independently, assessment it for core inclusion.
Deprecate with context – retire outdated idioms by way of flags and migration notes, by no means a big-bang purge.
A residing dictionary scales higher than a frozen rulebook.
Begin Small: Your First Dialect#section9
Able to introduce dialects? Begin with one damaged expertise:
This week: Discover one consumer stream the place excellent consistency blocks job completion. Could possibly be cellular customers combating desktop-sized parts, or accessibility wants your customary patterns don’t deal with.
Doc the context: What makes customary patterns fail right here? Environmental constraints? Person capabilities? Process urgency?
Design one systematic change: Concentrate on habits over aesthetics. If gloves are the issue, larger targets aren’t “”breaking the system””—they’re serving the consumer. Earn the variations and make them intentional.
Check and measure: Does the change enhance job completion? Time to productiveness? Person satisfaction?
Present the financial savings: If that dialect frees even half a dash, fluency has paid for itself.
Past the Part Library#section10
We’re not managing design programs anymore—we’re cultivating design languages. Languages that develop with their audio system. Languages that develop accents with out shedding which means. Languages that serve human wants over aesthetic beliefs.
The warehouse employees who went from 0% to 100% job completion didn’t care that our buttons broke the type information. They cared that the buttons lastly labored.
Your customers really feel the identical means. Give your system permission to talk their language.
