Design systems are still growing, and as such are a hotbed for innovation, whether that be in tooling, processes or org design. The category is a broad category that rewards innovation in the area of design systems.
Criteria for Submission
- The area that your submitting is out of the ordinary for design systems (eg. using design tokens probably won’t be enough for innovation!)
- Serves a design system that caters to at least designers and engineers (eg. a UI Library by itself won’t cut it)
- Having it be accessible and usable by design system consumers (ie. you need to have launched it!)
- An active design system that has been updated at least once in the previous 6 months
- The design system must belong to the submitter; it cannot belong to another company or person
Award for Innovation Submission Process
To submit for this category, please provide a case study of your design system documentation. Read through the criteria below, and then hit the button to submit via a Typeform. You'll have the option to either fill in the form, or upload a case study document in PDF or Doc format.
1. Introduction
Start by introducing your organization and the design system you have created. Give a brief overview of the innovative solution you have implemented, and what area of the design system strategy it relates to.
2. Solution
The submission requirements would include a detailed description of how you feel your submitted area is innovative and is providing results for your organization
💪 Challenges
Introduce the challenges you face, whether that be with your design system itself, the team, the wider organization, or your end user, that caused you to explore this particular area for innovation within your design system.
💡 The idea
Introduce the innovative solution that you landed on to solve your challenge. What was the process that led you to the final idea? How did you prove out the feasibility and get organizational buy-in to pursue the idea?
🚀 Implementation
Explain how you implemented your innovative solution and ensured adoption. If applicable, also explain any iterations you’ve made to the solution to get it to the point it’s at today.
📈 Results
Provide evidence of the results you have had from implementing this innovative idea, and your proved it addressed the initial challenge. You could also talk about any future iterations you have planned, or whether you’ve shared this externally to push the design system community forward.
3. Conclusion
Summarize the key points of your case study and emphasize how you think your innovative idea is beneficial for design systems, and why it should be considered for the Innovation Award.
4. Resources
If possible, share a link (zeroheight, confluence, notion…) or a file (pdf, ppt…) to give context to your governance strategy, whether that be sample pages, a link to your whole documentation, or supporting data and data visualization, or a link to the thing itself.
