Easy concepts in Design Systems, page 2
System Usability Scale (SUS): A Quick Usability Score
The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a 10-question survey that gives a single 0-100 score for a system's perceived usability. It's a quick, industry-standard way to benchmark usability. The biggest footgun: the score is not a percentage; 68 is average.
Semantic Versioning: The MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH Contract
Semantic Versioning (MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH) is a contract that tells users if an update will break their code. It's used by package managers to safely resolve dependencies.
Theme Provider Pattern: Centralized UI Styling
A Theme Provider acts like a global style guide, injecting design tokens like colors and fonts into all child components. It's used in frameworks like React to ensure a consistent look and feel. The footgun: components outside the provider won't get the theme.
CSS Custom Properties: Variables for Your Stylesheet
CSS custom properties are variables for your design system. Define a value like --primary-color once on :root and reuse it everywhere. This is ideal for theming, like switching between light and dark modes.
prefers-color-scheme: Respect User Theme Preferences
The prefers-color-scheme media query lets your CSS automatically adapt to a user's system-wide light or dark mode. It's used to create themes that respect user preferences.
Theme Object: Your Design System's Single Source of Truth
A theme object is a central dictionary for your UI's design tokens, like colors and font sizes. It ensures consistency across components by providing a single, shared source for styling values.
Apple HIG Compliance
Apple's HIG is the rulebook for native iOS and macOS apps. Compliance means matching platform conventions for layout and navigation. The footgun is treating it as a visual skin while ignoring interaction patterns, making apps that look right but feel wrong.
VUI Design: Making Computers Talk Like People
Think of VUI design as scripting a helpful human conversation, not just a command-line interface with a voice. It's key for voice assistants and smart speakers. The footgun is ignoring persona; if you don't design one, you'll get 'boring' by default.
We are hiring for this. Every open role lists the topics its interview covers, so you can prepare for the real thing rather than guessing.
See open roles