Schema 2022: A Design Systems Roadshow

This year, Figma's annual design systems conference, Schema, is expanding beyond a single virtual event. The 2022 edition will host in-person gatherings in New York, London, and Tokyo, with a virtual livestream following to wrap up the roadshow for those who can't make it in person. While the physical events are invite-only, interested attendees can apply online, and local meetups will run alongside the conference programming in each city.

Schema's focus is deliberately narrow. While Figma's broader Config conference explores design at large, Schema digs deep into the specific challenges and opportunities of design systems. As speaker Rogie King notes, the event's specificity lets attendees and speakers truly focus on the topic. The team curates content for different levels of experience, balancing innovative talks with foundational guidance for teams still new to design systems.

The Designer-Developer Intersection

Building a design system requires contributions from both designers and developers, and Schema is structured around that intersection. The creative team highlights the unique energy that emerges when these groups meet: designers share ideas for extensions and integrations, while developers showcase what they are building. Developer advocate Jake Albaugh connects with this through the language and shared thinking between the two roles.

A recurring theme is the tools and standards that enable this collaboration. Albaugh is eager to hear from the W3C Design Tokens Community Group, noting that people who build web standards think ahead about internationalization and accessibility. Joel Miller, a product designer on Figma's developer tools, is interested in how teams approach developer handoff and achieve parity across their systems in code and in Figma.

The event will also spotlight the people who build on top of existing systems. The Uber team is presenting in New York, sharing a journey that began with usability problems—wrong colors, detached components—and progressed from building individual utilities to a mono-plugin that increased design accuracy. Schema will also continue last year's theme of scaling constraints, showing what teams of one or many can achieve with custom tools.

Talks this year emphasize ownership and shared accountability, with themes emerging around mobile and plugins. The practice of design systems is itself evidence of ownership, but these sessions demonstrate an added sense of care for those touch points.

Honest Stories from the Field

Schema's programming doesn't ask for polished success stories. As events programming manager Alyssa Sleadd puts it, speakers are encouraged to share their whole truth.” This resonates with a question Figma Designer Advocate Luis Ouriach says is common: "Why is no one using our components?" He points to it as a reassuringly industry-wide challenge. In London, the Farfetch team will share research they conducted into their own design system's success, applying core product design principles to their own product.

The team is candid about what excites them most: getting back in person with the community. After the conference circuit, there's an energy when people come together to learn from each other, and that momentum now extends across New York, London, Tokyo, and online.

The conversations are also shifting beyond the systems themselves to the people behind them. As Anthony DiSpezio says, the community is elevating the discussion from the mechanics of systems to the people who create and maintain them—any design system ultimately reflects its users and contributors.

Talks on the Watchlist

Team members shared the standout sessions they're looking forward to:

  • Jules Forrest's talk on designing a community-driven design systems roadmap, recommended for its approach to building culture and bringing stakeholders along.
  • Naomi and Su's presentation on component props from an engineering perspective, noted by Jake Albaugh as an example of the field's evolving language and tooling.
  • Nathan Curtis's talk on sub-components. As Jacob puts it, "The dude's brilliant."

Talks from Schema 2022 will be available on DesignSystems.com after the roadshow completes.