Case 06 · Open source · Design systems

The box of parts every product is built from

Every Red Hat product is built from the same shared box of parts, an open-source design system called PatternFly. Improve one part in the box, and every product that uses it gets better. It's the highest-leverage work a designer can do, and anyone can audit it: the parts, the patterns and the contribution history are all public.

Project PatternFly, open-source design system
My role Contributor, patterns, components, guidelines
Timeframe 2021 to present
Links patternfly.org

What I've contributed

Patterns, components and guideline work across the system, carried in from the product cases on this site: the wizard and remediation-flow patterns, access-control views, and the design team's linked-data workflow in Sketch, written up below. The contribution history itself is public on patternfly.org.

Try it: improve one part, watch every product follow
The shared box
SaveButton · v1
ConsoleSave
InstallerSave
DashboardSave
Three products, all using the same button from the box.
One change in the shared box, and every product that builds from it follows. That's the leverage.

Why this matters

A design system is the shared box of parts a whole company builds from. Ship one pattern into it and you've changed the shape of every product that adopts it. That's how a designer scales beyond the projects on their own plate.

It's also the most publicly auditable design work there is. Anyone can open the box and check: the components, the patterns, the contribution history.

Writing about systems work