Design System Meetup - v4.0.0 Sydney10th Sep 2018

Have you ever wondered why you “favourite” one thing but “star” something else? What role do Design System teams play when naming a brand new feature or renaming a legacy concept? Sarah Karp, a Content Design Manager at Atlassian, shares what goes on behind the scenes of a product terminology decision. In this talk, you’ll learn how to validate a terminology choice, get buy-in from stakeholders, and streamline naming decisions into a process that can be shared across entire organisations.

Communication is hard, what we name things affects how well we communicate. Simple interactions like getting a haircut or ordering an ice cream can increase anxiety due to communication. Poor communication can change outcomes, how things are perceived and how they are used. When building a design system we have to name a lot of things. Some times the names we give should be functional and understandable and other times there are opportunities to be creative and create a positive culture.

Giving a name to something is a powerful action. It's part of human nature to attach meaning and expectation to people, objects and ideas just from the name they have been given. For design systems this impacts everything from coding standards to the efficiency of collaboration between teams. How do you define components in a way all stakeholders can understand? How do you set APIs that will last? It all starts with naming things.