A design system does not have to be a 200-component library. For most small teams, six decisions and a page of documentation will do more good than a year of tooling.
Design systems for teams that are not design teams
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Notes on design systems, WordPress craft and running a small studio well.
What we learned running a fixed-price studio for ten years
Hourly billing rewards the wrong things. Here is how we moved to fixed scope and fixed price, and what it cost us to get there.
Accessibility is a design decision, not a checklist
Most accessibility failures are decided in the design file, weeks before anyone writes markup. Here is where to catch them.
A performance budget you will actually keep
Speed is not a phase at the end of a project. Write three numbers into the brief and let them shape every decision that follows.
Writing website copy before the design exists
Designing around placeholder text produces layouts that only work with placeholder text. Write first, even badly.
When to use a page builder, and when to stop
Page builders are a tool for letting non-developers ship. That is a real, valuable job — as long as you know where the edge is.
The handover document nobody regrets writing
Two pages, written during the build rather than after it, will save your client more money than any other deliverable.
Choosing colours that survive contact with a real site
A palette that looks beautiful on a moodboard often collapses the moment it has to render a disabled button. Build it in the order you will use it.
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