Learn from Nathan Curtis,Design System ROI, Figma Variables

Learn from Nathan Curtis,Design System ROI, Figma Variables

Into Design Systems Team

May 7, 2025

 Exciting news! Our big annual online conference is coming up on May 28–30! Just 3 weeks away!

 Join us to grow alongside 1,000+ passionate Design System professionals in an inclusive, welcoming environment.

 We're thrilled to announce this year's practical sessions, designed to equip you with the skills needed to level up as Design System expert! 💪

📌 Spectacular component alignment between design and code

Nathan CurtisDesign System Consultant, Directed Edges

As collaboration and tools improve, it’s increasingly realistic to align the shape of UI component implementations across platforms (not just React, iOS and Android but, yes, Figma too). Design system teams are investing time and effort to align the names of component, property, enumerated variants, and elements across their catalog. In this talk, I’ll describe my experiences leading those efforts across many design systems, including the steps I took, the patterns I learned, and the practices I instituted to avoid the problem in the future.

 

What you will learn:

•⁠  ⁠What API alignment is and why it matters

•⁠  ⁠How to audit existing catalogs, propose changes, and balance tradeoffs of breaking changes and “alignment debt”

•⁠  ⁠When to align, diverge, ignore, or create a transformation between the shape of different implementations

•⁠  ⁠What tools and techniques foster the practical understanding and getting work done



📌 My Toolkit: Educating Teams and Demonstrating Design System ROI

Romina Kavcic, Design System Lead & Creator of The Design System Guide

Design systems thrive or die based on organizational buy-in. In this talk, I'll share my battle-tested toolkit for securing leadership support, building cross-functional champions, and demonstrating measurable ROI. 


You'll learn practical approaches for education and implementation that bridge the designer-developer gap, including my frameworks for token architecture, component documentation, and adoption tracking. Walk away with concrete templates and tools you can implement immediately.

 

What you will learn:

•⁠  Practical frameworks for educating both designers and developers 

•⁠  ⁠How to build a persuasive business case for design systems 

•⁠  ⁠Methods to connect your design system directly to product outcomes 

•⁠  ⁠Building personalized tools


📌 Master Figma variables and slot components

Marcin Spiewak, Design Systems Architect  Design Tokens Crusader
Mr Biscuit, Design System Architect Figma Plugins Builder

First, we dive into contextual awareness, using variables to make components intelligently conform to their environments, including emphasis levels, size, brand , colorMode , type and much much more.

Second, we unveil the absolute best implementation of slot components, while most designers rely on basic instance swapping. Real slots—like those in web technologies—offer far greater flexibility. We will demonstrate the implementation of real <slots/> in Figma.

What you will learn:

•⁠  How to use variables for true contextual awareness, making components adapt automatically to their environment. 

•⁠  ⁠A new approach to slot components in Figma that brings the flexibility of web-based slot mechanics + whitelist + ease of use.

•⁠  ⁠Practical techniques for enhancing reusability, increasing component adoption and reducing detachments in your design system.

Sneak Peek into their content:


👉 Learn hands-on from top experts in the industry


✅ Learn from top experts.
✅ Master the latest industry techniques.
✅ Level up your Design Systems skills to the highest professional standard.

What's included:
•⁠  20+ hours of actionable live sessions, demos, case studies & live Q&A
•⁠  Slides, templates & files from top Design System minds 

•⁠  Access to our virtual board to network with Design System Friends from all around the world including resources and jobs
•⁠  Certificate to boost your CV
 
•⁠  Access to a pre-recorded 2-hour accessibility training


👉 Secure your spot


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The perfect mix of technical depth and practical strategies has transformed how I implement design systems with my teams. Every insight is immediately actionable.

Chris Beltran, VP Product Design, JPMorgan Chase

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am incredibly impressed with the Into Design Systems online conference. It is exceptionally well-prepared, with very personable hosts and excellent speakers who have presented the topics extremely well. The insights and knowledge shared have been invaluable.

Severine GrafSenior UI Designer, Ui First Group

Get Design System resources
delivered straight to your inbox

Get Design System resources
delivered straight to your inbox 📥