On Theme: Design Systems in Depth
On Theme: Design Systems in Depth
Elyse Holladay
Five 2026 Predictions for Design Systems with Noelle Lansford
54 minutes Posted Mar 2, 2026 at 2:00 pm.
Episode Intro
1: Designing with code is in, making pictures of UIs is out
Can design with code scale at organizations?
Rise of the Design Engineer?
2: The new critical deliverables for systems teams
3: Brand expression and shipping one-offs
Stop gatekeeping!!
4: Organizational behavior change, not components
Getting your reps in
5: The DS narrative is now about quality, not efficiency
AI owns the efficiency pitch
The new process
Fluffy stuff (you'll miss it when it's gone)
Wrap-up
0:00
54:45
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Show notes
Noelle joins me again for some 2026 predictions trend encapsulations, and we try to unpack the absolute madness of the first two months of 2026. 1️⃣ Designing with code is in, making pictures of UIs is out. 2️⃣ The new critical deliverables for systems teams are design guidelines, agent rules, tokens, and semantic APIs. 3️⃣ We're gonna see a real focus on brand expression, but also on one-offs. 4️⃣ Design system teams, you do organizational behavior change. ...