An open repository of thoroughly analyzed design systems, designed and coded solo across two weekends — and acquired in 2020.
Creator, designer and engineer
There was no easy way to learn about the details of design systems at other companies, and promotional opportunities for the design systems themselves were fairly limited.
I validated this with an exploratory study and industry analysis. Then, for two subsequent weekends in January 2018, I designed and coded the repository in React and Node.
Create a public repository with analyses of at least 50 design systems, find at least 10 maintainers, and attract at least 10,000 unique users in the first month after launch.
Everything: the concept, prototyping and visual design, coding in HTML/CSS/JS and React, building CLI tooling in Node.js, writing the technical documentation, and building and maintaining the community.
The early prototype was, fittingly, created in UXPin.
90 systems analyzed and a team of 35 maintainers.
120,000 unique users in the first 12 months, 613 GitHub stars and 79 forks — well past every objective we set.
Adele was acquired in the spring of 2020.
Lessons learned
