Principal design advocate at zeroheight, Luke Murphy, shares what inspired them to write a talk on the death of design systems as we know them, why teams struggle to secure buy-in, what this year’s Design System Report reveals, and more
Welcome back to Pixel Pioneers! This year, you’re giving a talk about the death of design systems. That’s a somewhat surprising topic for zeroheight’s principal design advocate.😄 How did you come up with the idea for the talk?
Ha! Yeah, I think my bosses were a bit worried when I wrote the original article… It came from a conversation that I was having with Scott Riley in 2024 about design systems and how everything felt a bit broken. Design systems still weren’t getting proper traction within organisations, despite being an obvious way for companies of all sizes to build products. We ended up talking about how design systems as a concept had been commodified, both by companies and by the community, which actually causes more problems than it solved.
The original article was talking about how, as an industry, we need to break down how we view design systems, and build it back up to focus on how to better seat design systems within our orgs as product infrastructure. Then 2025 happened. These days, with AI-driven product development, it’s even more essential to make sure that design systems are positioned in the right way as essential infrastructure, because without it, every team that is creating anything for the companies we work for is going to end up creating widely diverging experiences and expressions of our brand and products.
So we not only need to make sure we’re doing a good job of positioning our product (the design system) with our stakeholders and audiences, but also making sure we’ve got the tooling set up to actually support them in the most frictionless way possible.
What first made you realise that the way teams talk about design systems can either help buy-in or completely lose the room?
One of the cool things about working with zeroheight is that I get to talk to design system teams of all sizes on a daily basis. One of the frustrating things with this is that I see the same patterns repeat themselves far too often. With any new tool, process, or way of working, the passionate people can quite often get wrapped up in their own jargon, which makes it impossible for anyone outside to be included. It almost comes across as a self-preservation technique, to make it clear to people that they know what they’re talking about and therefore are worthy of their job.
The problem with this is that exclusionary language excludes people. If you can’t bring them into what you’re doing, it’s a hell of a lot harder to sell that in, whether that’s with users or the people who give you money!
What are the most surprising findings of this year’s Design Systems Report?
On the same theme, one of the most depressing stats from the Design Systems Report year on year is the number of teams that have dedicated resources to communicating and building community for their design system (literally three teams this year). It’s such an essential part of getting people to actually use the system!
That said, there were definitely some good things that came out of the report, too! Teams are growing, adoption is growing, trust in the system is growing… design systems are still securing that foothold, and it seems to be happening, which is great. I just think it can happen faster.
Let’s give zeroheight’s design systems conference a plug. What do you have planned for Converge this year?
I’m going to dress up in a bear costume and do dances on stage for six hours.
Not really (or maybe?), but we’ve got some of the best folks in design systems coming to share their knowledge in Newcastle on October 22 this year, and I can’t wait. TJ Pitre, who has been doing some amazing work in getting the context of design systems into AI tools, is speaking and running a workshop. We also have Frances Szweda from the Tesco design system (which won multiple awards at the Design System Awards last year), talking about internal advocacy for your design system, which I can’t wait to see. We’re still finding more speakers, too, so watch this space!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Whoever introduced me to the phrase ‘may the bridges I burn light the way’ has a lot to answer for.
Finally, AI told me to ask you this: If a design system had a theme tune, what would it sound like?
It would sound something like Never Meant by American Football. Nerdy math-rock with complicated time signatures and complex structures, but it ends up sounding beautiful as a whole. And it makes you cry.
At Pixel Pioneers Bristol 2026, Luke Murphy will argue for the de-commodification of design systems. The conference will also cover new web platform features safe to use in your projects today, designing and building low-carbon websites, making music with HTML, creating web layouts with both code and UI design tools, and more. Get your ticket today!