UXA2023 Eva Plaisted, Klaus Paiva and Maria Christley - oing smaller, to go bigger: A design system evolution

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Going smaller to go bigger. A design system’s evolution. Maria Christley Head of Design  UI Platform Eva Plaisted Senior Product Designer  Atlassian Design System  Klaus Paiva Senior Engineer  Atlassian Design System

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Atlassian Design System is the cornerstone of crafting quality user interfaces at scale.

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18+ products

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4000+ designers & developers 18+ products

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18+ products 30,000+ marketplace   vendors 4000+ designers & developers

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18+ products millions end customers 4000+ designers & developers 30,000+ marketplace   vendors

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The ‘wicked’ intersection

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The ‘wicked’ intersection PAST High maintenance burden

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The ‘wicked’ intersection PAST High maintenance burden PRESENT Hyper growth driving high demand No longer modern, world class or useful

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The ‘wicked’ intersection PAST High maintenance burden PRESENT Hyper growth driving high demand No longer modern, world class or useful FUTURE What future? No time!?!?

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Unleashing the potential for high quality design decisions to be made with confidence and speed. ✨ Going smaller to go bigger

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✨

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✨ TEAM

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✨ TEAM COMPOSABILITY

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✨ TEAM COMPOSABILITY FUTURE VISION

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Team

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When a design system tries to please everyone, it pleases no one

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When a design system tries to please everyone, it pleases no one Image credit: The Pokemon Company

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PRODUCT

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SERVICE PRODUCT

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SERVICE VALUE PRODUCT

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SERVICE VALUE PRODUCT Design Systems are for people

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Image credits @JohnnyParr @CallaghanDesign

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An organization’s output is directly related to how it communicates internally   Conway’s Law

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Thanks for capturing all this and for seeking our feedback regularly as this evolves! Co-designing our future is really empowering. Jack Lo Russo, Design Systems Engineer … …

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Thanks for capturing all this and for seeking our feedback regularly as this evolves! Co-designing our future is really empowering. Jack Lo Russo, Design Systems Engineer I’m also keen to know how these partner relationships are going to be developed. Ali Pereira, Design Systems Designer … … … …

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One team

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UI Foundations UI Foundations Accessibility Maker Experience Teams Four mission driven teams

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UI Foundations UI Foundations Accessibility Maker Experience Enablement and adoption Enterprise grade Service and support Teams Shared Capabilities Atlassian Design System leadership Leads Four mission driven teams

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You will ship your org. Embrace this to be mission focused.

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Composability

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UI Foundations UI Foundations Accessibility Maker Experience

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UI Foundations UI Foundations Accessibility Maker Experience

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Maintainable Scalable Flexible

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Maintainable Scalable Confluence → Jira → Trello → Flexible

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Maintainable New products and experiences Scalable Flexible

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Easily supported by the DS team Maintainable Scalable Flexible

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This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action Let’s build a card!

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Flexible Scalable Maintainable Create a super card 🦸 This is a heading I'm baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action

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Flexible Scalable Maintainable Action Build ALL the cards This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action

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Flexible Scalable Maintainable This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action Break it down 🕺 Flexible Scalable Maintainable

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Break it down 🕺 This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action Flexible Scalable Maintainable

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This is a heading I'm baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action

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This is a heading I'm baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action This is a heading This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. Action Action

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This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa mustache yes plz unicorn YOLO. Praxis banh mi jawn stumptown kitsch green yuccie. elevation.surface.default text.default Space.100 8 Inline Space.100 8 Stack avatar.small icon.button heading.small This is a smaller header space.200 16 Box space.150 12 Stack

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This is a description. I’m baby jawn godard ennui, big mood mustache af jean shorts. Shaman vibecession tumblr, food truck 8-bit quinoa. This is a smaller header This is a subtitle Edited 4 July 2023

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But how ? Design Tokens Primitives New!

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But how ? Design Tokens The single source of truth to name and store design decisions. Primitives New!

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But how ? Design Tokens The single source of truth to name and store design decisions. Primitives The scaffolding built around design tokens to guide usage. New!

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But how ?

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But how ? UI foundations Our products Tokens Primitives

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Guidance is 🫅. Embed it into your system, every step of the way.

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8 How it started… Hi there!

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“I don’t understand when   I can use 8px and when I can use 4px.” Inconsistent guidance How it started… 8

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“I don’t understand when   I can use 8px and when I can use 4px.” Inconsistent guidance “I use grid size with any multiple to get the values my designers request.” Creative use of grid-size “How should I space elements apart on my page?” Lack of updated grids How it started… 8

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“I don’t understand when   I can use 8px and when I can use 4px.” Inconsistent guidance “I use grid size with any multiple to get the values my designers request.” Creative use of grid-size “Why are all these page widths inconsistent?” A layout crisis “How should I space elements apart on my page?” Lack of updated grids How it started… 8

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“I don’t understand when   I can use 8px and when I can use 4px.” Inconsistent guidance “What the f%*& are our breakpoints?” No framework for responsive “I use grid size with any multiple to get the values my designers request.” Creative use of grid-size “Why are all these page widths inconsistent?” A layout crisis “How should I space elements apart on my page?” Lack of updated grids How it started… 8 Wait, isn’t it 2023?

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64 48 40 32 24 20 12 16 6 4 How it’s going… Scale 8 Welcome friends!

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How it’s going… space.025 space.050 space.075 space.100 space.150 space.200 space.250 space.300 space.400 space.500 space.600 space.800 Scale Tokens 64 48 40 32 24 20 12 16 6 4 8

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How it’s going… Box Stack Inline Scale Tokens Primitives

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How it’s going… Scale Tokens Primitives Grid

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MAKERS Scale Tokens Primitives Grid How it’s going…

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Scale Tokens Primitives Grid Responsive Density MAKERS CUSTOMERS How it’s going…

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Box Stack Inline space.300 24 Box space.300 24 Stack space.300 24 Inline Layout primitives

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Box Stack Inline Layout primitives

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk Let’s build with primitives!

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk Let’s build with primitives!

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk space.300 24 Box Let’s build with primitives!

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Let’s build with primitives! Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk space.200 16 Inline Let’s build with primitives!

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Let’s build with primitives! Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk space.050 4 Stack Let’s build with primitives!

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Let’s build with primitives! Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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🖥 space.300 24 Box space.200 16 Inline space.050 4 Stack But wait…there’s more! Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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But wait…there’s more! 📱 space.200 16 Box space.050 4 Stack space.150 12 Inline Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk 🖥 space.300 24 Box space.200 16 Inline space.050 4 Stack Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum IT Operations Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Financial Month End Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Customer Support Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Sales Ops Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum IT Support Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum SWAGs Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum HR Service Desk Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Onboarding Let’s put it into action

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Sales Ops Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum IT Support Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum SWAGs Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum HR Service Desk Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Onboarding

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Strive for parity 🔮 but allow it to come in different forms* * meet the maker where they are

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Let’s talk about code for a bit… Hi, there!

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UX: Design and Code UX: Design and Code + UX: Design and Code

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+ UX: Design and Code

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Let’s build our card for real!

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Why stop there? Primitives can be applied to other UI foundations… Are we stopping?

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Wow, finally after so many years, we have an amazing portal with a long description to top up the lorem ipsum Travel Service Desk

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Key benefits

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Key benefits Increased designer and developer productivity

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Key benefits Increased designer and developer productivity • Pervasive IA: Terminology parity, better handovers

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Key benefits Increased designer and developer productivity • Pervasive IA: Terminology parity, better handovers Less time handling boilerplate, more time spent shipping

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Key benefits Increased designer and developer productivity • Pervasive IA: Terminology parity, better handovers Less time handling boilerplate, more time spent shipping 6+ hours saved / week of design time

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Handover 🤝  in detail 🔍

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+ Bring the tools closer together

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+ ❤ Bring the tools closer together

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Bring the tools closer together Box Stack Inline

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Bring the tools closer together

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Bring the tools closer together

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What about bespoke experiences?

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xcss What about bespoke experiences?

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Full docs: go.atlassian.com/xcss xcss: An example

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xcss: An example Full docs: go.atlassian.com/xcss

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xcss: An example Full docs: go.atlassian.com/xcss

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Auto layout What about vendor lock-in?

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What about vendor lock-in?

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Three 🔑  principles

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Elements to success Cohesion Composition Confidence

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Cohesion Ensure cohesive experiences that are distinctly Atlassian while not restricting the creativity and unique expression of our makers Composition Confidence

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Composition Confidence Cohesion

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Cohesion Composition Smaller pieces mean higher fidelity. They can be composed infinitely with each use being declarative and intentionally expressive. Confidence

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Composition Confidence Cohesion

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Cohesion Composition Confidence More expressive & declarative code ‑‐ Better target for code transformation tools ‑‐ Keeping code up-to- date with latest

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Composition Confidence Cohesion

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Composition Confidence Cohesion

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Future Vision

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PAST PRESENT 2023 FUTURE 2033 What do the next 10 years hold?

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PAST PRESENT 2023 FUTURE 2033 What do the next 10 years hold?

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Make experience quality the pit of success

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Make experience quality the pit of success

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Make experience quality the pit of success

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We’re shifting our culture through systems thinking. “ Jennie Yip | Principal Design Architect   Atlassian Design System

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Thank you for adding dark mode! This was an accessibility issue for some people like me. “ JIRA CUSTOMER

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Thank you for adding dark mode! This was an accessibility issue for some people like me. “ JIRA CUSTOMER

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Primitives are awesome. [They are] genuinely low effort and high impact. “ ATLASSIAN DEVELOPER

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Primitives are awesome. [They are] genuinely low effort and high impact. “ ATLASSIAN DEVELOPER

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Systemic Shifts

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Systemic Shifts

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Systemic Shifts

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What have we learned? atlassian.design

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THANK YOU Maria Christley Head of Design  UI Platform Eva Plaisted Senior Product Designer  Atlassian Design System  Klaus Paiva Senior Engineer  Atlassian Design System