Design systems exist to reduce decision-making.
But no system covers everything. 👀
So are your principles actually guiding your decisions?
Read more here ➡️ hubs.li/Q04xMJcy0
ALT zeroheight blog graphic asking "Your design system has principles. But are they actually guiding decisions?" Hand-drawn illustration of a red button labelled "Button," a colour swatch, a letter "a," a question mark, and a cursor pointer.
Duplicate pages, hidden pages, reviews scattered across Slack...
Sound familiar?
If you maintain design system documentation and want fewer workarounds, clearer reviews, and more confidence when you publish, our next PDD webinar is for you.
Register 👉 hubs.li/Q04y2zj90
ALT Purple event graphic for zeroheight's Product Deep Dive webinar, "Before You Hit Publish: Drafts, Diffs, and Better Governance," Tuesday 29th September 2026, 4:00pm BST / 11:00am ET / 8:00am PT. Black-and-white cutout-style headshots of speakers Rob Whitfield (Senior Product Designer), Tom Daly (Full Stack Product Engineer), and Luke Murphy (Head of Advocacy), with the zeroheight and Deep Dive logos in the bottom corners.
The countdown is officially on. Today marks 1 month until Converge 2026! 🎉
Tickets are almost sold out so get your hands on the last few while you can - we’ve got a feeling this is going to be the biggest and best Converge yet. 🥳
Get your tickets: hubs.li/Q04xMC0x0
Everyone talks about automating as much as possible in design systems. But what can you actually automate?
Join tomorrow's DSWTF as Luke and Michelle share what they've successfully automated, and what works better with a human touch.
23rd Sept, 4pm BST
hubs.li/Q04xZ6hP0
ALT Promotional image for DSWTF podcast, featuring illustrations of hosts Michelle and Luke. Featuring the zeroheight logo in the bottom right corner.
Your design system has all the right artifacts. So why does it still feel immature? 😖
Measuring Design System Maturity makes the case that maturity isn't about what you can point to. It's about what your team actually does.
Learn more👇
hubs.li/Q04xMz_F0
ALT Promotional graphic for zeroheight's book "Measuring Design System Maturity," foreword by Ben Callahan. Dark background with a pink book cover featuring a red geometric line illustration and the zeroheight logo, alongside bold white title text and the Maturity Model logo.
Have you ever asked yourself if what you're designing still makes sense if you can't see it?
This article shares insights from an interview with a JAWS + Braille user, including design best practices and how to meet WCAG compliance in your design system.
hubs.li/Q04x6wHN0
ALT Blog header graphic for "Meet Victoria: 6 practical ways to design for a blind person," with illustrated icons (accessibility figure, audio/volume, lowercase "a," alert triangle, and an eye with a cursor) forming a collage beside a pointing hand, on a pale pink background with the zeroheight logo.
The Measuring Design System Maturity book.
A six-axis model for finding out where your design system really is - and what to do next.
Get your copy here ➡️ hubs.li/Q04x06jF0
ALT A promotional image for zeroheight's Measuring Design System Maturity book. An image of the book on the right hand side, with the zeroheight and maturity model logos in the bottom left corner.
Most design systems are organised around what they produce: tokens, components, documentation.
This article dives into why that breaks down at scale, and the 6-pillar operating model that fixes it.
Check it out 👉 hubs.li/Q04w4rDx0
ALT Blog graphic: 'The 6 pillars of a successful design systems team.' Illustrated on the right is a hand holding a yellow 6 alongside a document, mint checkmark circle, and red button icon, on a cream background
@moodle LMS has 500M+ users and 23 years of community-driven growth - but no shared design language.
Building one from scratch, they made it AI-first and learned machines need a much higher bar for consistency than humans ever did.
Full story ➡️ hubs.li/Q04wRNv40
ALT Showcase graphic: 'Tips for building a design system for AI, by Moodle.' On the right, a dashed-outline card displays the Moodle logo against a dark and light purple background, labelled 'logo/primary/Moodle.'
Did someone say FREE BOOK?! 😲
We’re giving away a limited-edition physical copy of our new book Measuring Design System Maturity to 5 lucky winners.
Enter here ➡️ lnkd.in/p/e7JHvb8U#designsystems
ALT Graphic promoting zeroheight's new book Measuring Design System Maturity.
Figma Motion was one of our favourite Config drops - a tool that finally talks to our design system AND does motion.
But are we covering it right? 🤔
Luke & Michelle discuss on this week's DSWTF.
9th Sept, 4pm BST.
Register below 👇
watch.getcontrast.io/registe…
ALT Promotional graphic for Design Systems WTF podcast. Featuring illustrations of hosts Michelle and Luke, featuring the zeroheight logo.
Introducing Measuring Design System Maturity - our new book on all things design system maturity. 📖
Read the book as we unpack the concept of our maturity model, walk through the axes and archetypes, and explore where the industry is heading.
👉 hubs.li/Q04vy7SD0
ALT zeroheight book announcement: pink 'Measuring Design System Maturity' book covers with a red polygon illustration, stacked on a dark maroon background.
AI will democratise whatever your design system is built to value. Build it to value everyone.
Closing out the 3-part AI ethics series: can AI-augmented design systems genuinely democratise design?
Read part 3 👉 hubs.li/Q04vHZS30
ALT Blog header image reading 'AI ethics in design systems - Part 3: Can AI-augmented design systems actually democratize design?' alongside an illustrated robot character surrounded by UI icons. zeroheight logo in the bottom left.
The age old question… How mature is your design system?
We think it's about time you had a real answer.
Stay tuned for the latest zeroheight resource dropping next week.
Any guesses? 👀
Have you registered for tomorrow’s DS Live webinar?
Join accessibility expert Hidde de Vries as he shares practical strategies for baking accessibility into components, helping teams build more inclusive experiences by default.
📅Weds 2nd Sept / 4pm BST
hubs.li/Q04tmWNL0
ALT DS Live event graphic, marked Online, for September 2, 4PM BST, titled 'Accelerating accessibility in a component-based world' with speaker Hidde de Vries, Web Standards Specialist at Logius, alongside a halftone-style portrait photo.
The hardest part of AI design tools isn't learning them. It's knowing when to stop trusting them.
This blog digs into how AI design output can look credible while missing things like accessibility labels or quietly reinforcing bias from training data.
👉 hubs.li/Q04tqlWh0
ALT Blog header graphic for zeroheight titled 'AI ethics in design systems — Part 2: From creator to curator.' Illustration shows a smiling robot holding a pencil, alongside an image icon, a checkmark circle, sparkles, and a cursor.
How do you measure something as complex as design system maturity? We have our own ideas, so do Redwoods.
Join our live webinar on Sept 1 at 5pm BST to unpack how each of our models were built, the tradeoffs, and where we still disagree.
Sign up here 👉 hubs.li/Q04vd1DC0
ALT Promotional image for an online webinar hosted by zeroheight on Tuesday 1st September at 5pm BST. Title 'What does design system maturity mean?'.
DS Live is back! 🥳
Join Hidde de Vries for a practical webinar on strategies for baking accessibility into components from the ground up, so more people can actually use what you build.
📅 September 2nd
⏰ 4pm BST
Register 👉 hubs.li/Q04tmWNL0
ALT DS Live event graphic, for September 2, 4PM BST, titled 'Accelerating accessibility in a component-based world' with speaker Hidde de Vries, Web Standards Specialist at Logius, alongside a halftone-style portrait photo.
AI ethics governance isn't a blocker to adoption. It's the condition for it.
Thomas explores why the fastest AI adopters are often the least governed - and what that means for design teams.
Read part 1 of the 3-part series: hubs.li/Q04t226p0
ALT Blog header image reading 'AI ethics in design systems — Part 1: Why enterprises can't scale AI without an ethics framework,' alongside an illustrated robot character surrounded by UI icons — a sparkle card, a checkmark badge, and a red button — with a cursor pointing at it. zeroheight logo in the bottom left.
Our first ever Hops & Props London event was so much fun. 😎
We're pretty sure we're part of the best community there is (although we might be a little biased).
Maybe there's a take 2 on the cards? 👀
Just a few days to go until our first Hops & Props London event!
What could be better than design systems chat and drinks in the sun?☀️
📆 Thursday, 20th August @ 93 Feet East, London
⏰ 18:00 - 22:00
Register here: hubs.li/Q04sNJ2r0
There's a polished story about design systems: strategic, scalable, high-impact.
There's also the reality - told on Reddit and Discord after hours.
Nathania surfaces the truths practitioners know but assume aren't worth sharing officially. 👇
hubs.li/Q04sc_pY0
ALT "Blog header illustration with the title 'Design system work costs people. Why can't we just be honest about it?' Alongside the text, a pixel-art style hand holds a pound sign, with icons floating above it. zeroheight logo in the corner."
If we asked you where your design system stands right now, would you know?
Most teams can't say for sure. Our Maturity Model tool can.
Take the test and find out where your system is strong, where you're behind, and where to focus next.
Take the test: hubs.li/Q04sDNFz0
ALT Promotional graphic reading "How mature is your design system? Six axes. Four stages. One honest picture of your design system." Two illustrated archetype cards are shown — "The Green Bud" and "The Art Student" — alongside a "Take the test" button.
There’s just over 1 week to go until Hops & Props London!
Come along and meet others in the industry, hear talks from the experts, and enjoy some drinks in the sun 😎
📆 Thursday, 20th August @ 93 Feet East, London
⏰ 18:00 - 22:00
Sign up: hubs.li/Q04scP9d0
ALT Event graphic on a lilac moiré background with distorted, glitch-effect chromatic-aberration lettering reading "Hops & Props" at an angle across the centre. A globe icon and the zeroheight logo sit top left and top right. Bottom left text reads "zeroheight presents an evening of talks & drinks at 93 Feet East, London, 20 August 2026 from 6pm," with a large "zeroheight" wordmark bottom right in the same glitch style.
Introducing the second wave of speakers for Converge 2026! 🎉
Expect practical, proven lessons on what works: from aligning teams and scaling systems, to the latest AI innovations in design systems.
📍 Newcastle, UK
📅 October 22
Secure your ticket 👉 hubs.li/Q04scNYr0
ALT Converge 2026 second wave speaker announcement featuring headshots and roles for Nikki Plyem, Lauren LoPrete, Leo Vogel, and Amy Hupe. October 22, 2026, Newcastle, UK. Brought to you by zeroheight.
What should we call design systems?🤔
Join Luke and Michelle in tomorrow’s DS WTF live podcast as they dig into the question: is "design system" just a bad name we're stuck defending, or is the whole concept overdue for a rebuild?
Save your spot 👉 hubs.li/Q04sz1Ws0
ALT Design System WTF podcast cover artwork, featuring illustrations of Michelle and Luke - the podcast hosts.
The zeroheight MCP is now available on Free and Starter plans 🥳
It turns your design system into the context layer your team and agents build from.
Explore the use cases and try it yourself 👇
hubs.li/Q04s3Clp0
ALT Announcement graphic for zeroheight MCP, tagged "Product release," with the headline "zeroheight MCP. Now on every plan." App and tool icons (V0, VS Code, Figma, Claude, and others) float around a preview of a zeroheight styleguide page for a "Synapse design system," showing Foundation, Style, and Components sections. The zeroheight logo sits in the bottom left.
Design systems love metrics. 📊
But not all of them are useful. Some make us feel productive. Others help us make better decisions.
Charlotte makes the case for treating design systems as products, and measuring them like one.
Read the article here ➡️ hubs.li/Q04rvwHP0
ALT Light grey background with a "Blog" tag and the headline "The metrics that actually matter in design systems." in dark grey. A hand-drawn, sketchy illustrated cluster on the right includes a document icon with the letter "a", a red heart, a percent symbol, an arrow, and a cursor, in a black outline style with red, mint, mustard, and purple accents. The zeroheight logo sits bottom left.
Every design system has a type.
The Design System Maturity Model scores yours across six axes: Foundations, Documentation, Governance, Adoption, Measurement, AI Readiness - then gives you an archetype and the full shape of your system.
Take the test 👉 hubs.li/Q04rvmKB0
ALT Black background with the headline "Every design system has a type. What's yours?" in white, above the label "Design System Maturity Model" in coral. A scattered cluster of colourful line-art icons. The zeroheight "maturity model" logo sits bottom left, with a coral "Take the test" button bottom right.
Still fighting AI tools that ignore your design system?
Good news.
zeroheight now feeds your guidelines, components, and patterns straight into @figma's agent - so you can build and refine components on the canvas, on system, every time.
Learn more: hubs.li/Q04rvcDy0
Getting an agent to generate code is easy. Getting it production-ready takes a proper briefing.
Ep 3 of License to Build: briefing agents to build production-ready components, from Figma to Claude Code with the zeroheight MCP.
📅 Tue 11th Aug, 4pm GMT
👉hubs.ly/Q04r8Mr40
ALT Promotional graphic for License to Build Episode 003: Briefing Agents to Build Components in Code, Tuesday 11th August 2026, 4:00pm BST / 11:00am ET / 8:00am PT. Illustrated characters in detective-style hats and sunglasses hold magnifying glasses, tools, and a drone. Speaker: Luke Murphy, Principal Design Advocate at zeroheight, shown in a headshot.
Your design system is only as strong as what's actually in production.
Connect the zeroheight MCP to your coding agent and it checks your actual code against your design system docs - flagging what's off-system, misusing tokens, and what needs fixing.
→ hubs.li/Q04ntNt-0
ALT Screenshot of a code editor showing a Markdown audit report titled 'Savings Dashboard Audit Report,' comparing a Savings page implementation against Baseline Design System guidance, with sections on design token usage, issues found, and a table of non-token dimension values.
Most accessibility docs focus on component level: states, contrast, keyboard behaviour.
A gap remains: what happens when a team hits a pattern the system didn't anticipate?
Read how to close that gap before it becomes accessibility debt 👇
hubs.li/Q04qQC8n0
ALT Blog titled: "How accessibility gets lost between base and product design systems," with the zeroheight logo. An illustration shows a hand holding an accessibility icon, alongside an eye, a computer mouse, an upward trend arrow, and a cursor.
Presenting Hops & Props London, our newest event to bring the design systems community together.
Expect talks from industry leaders, chats with other cool design systems folk and drinks in the summer sun. 😎
20th August @ 18:00-22:00
Save your spot: hubs.li/Q04r9pZN0
Why did we build a new Design System Maturity Model?
Read the blog to learn what we set out to change, how we approached it, and what the results can tell you about your design system.
➡️ hubs.li/Q04qvJg70
ALT Design System Maturity Model" promotional graphic with nested geometric shapes in red tones on a black background, the zeroheight maturity model logo, and a "Take the test" button.
How much of your codebase is following your design system?
The zeroheight MCP gives your coding agent access to your design system docs - so when you ask it to audit, it knows what it's checking against and makes fixes directly within the editor.
→ hubs.li/Q04ntNpr0
ALT Screenshot of a code editor split view. The left pane shows a diff of React/JSX code for a savings dashboard component, with added lines highlighted in green including Button components and formatted currency values. The right pane shows an AI assistant's response summarising changes made to align the dashboard with the design system package and Baseline MCP guidance, listing updates to buttons, icons, and design tokens replacing custom colour and typography values.
50% of design system teams are dealing with AI-generated UI that looks like the system, but isn't.
The shadow AI problem is real.
Read The State of AI in Design Systems Report to learn more: hubs.li/Q04qjZ670
Design systems are supposed to make consistency easier. For most things, they deliver.
Mobile accessibility is usually not one of them.
This blog digs into the barriers and what mobile-first accessibility looks like in a design system.
👉 hubs.li/Q04pR--H0
ALT zeroheight blog header on a lavender background reading "The mobile accessibility gap most design systems ignore."
What if all it took to audit your design system was a prompt, not a whole project?
zeroheight's MCP connects your docs to your MCP-enabled tool of choice so AI can read, interrogate, and deliver findings specific enough to act on.
Auditing made easy.
→ hubs.li/Q04ntKLW0
ALT Screenshot of a chat interface showing AI assistant auditing a design system styleguide. After a user asks for an audit of inconsistencies and gaps, the assistant reports using the styleguide integration, then displays summary stats — 5 critical gaps, 8 inconsistencies, 4 structural issues, 3 strengths noted.
Most design systems aren't uniformly mature. They're stronger in some areas than others.
Our Design System Maturity Model scores yours across six independent axes, from stage 1 to 4, so you know where you stand and what to focus on next.
Take the test 👉 hubs.li/Q04pCgcs0
ALT Dark promotional graphic for zeroheight's Design System Maturity Model, reading 'How mature is your design system? Six axes. Four stages. One honest picture of your design system.' A collage of colourful line-art icons (question mark, heart, arrow, document, stacked blocks, sparkles) fills the right side, with a 'Take the test' button below.
Are Figma components just another kind of design system documentation?
Check out Ron’s take here 👇
hubs.li/Q04p0B6x0
ALT Blog header on a cream background with the headline 'Are Figma components just another kind of design system documentation?' alongside an illustration of a hand holding a button component, a question mark, a toggle switch, and the Figma icon. zeroheight logo.
Getting an agent to place a Figma component is easy. Building it on-system takes the right docs.
Join Dispatch #2 of Licence to Build to learn how to brief agents with your design system context.
📅 Tue 21 July, 4pm GMT
Sign up here 👉 hubs.li/Q04ptQ5F0
ALT License to Build Episode _002 promo on a lavender background, for Tuesday 21st July 2026, 4.00pm BST / 11.00am ET / 8.00 PT. Heading: 'Briefing agents to scaffold components in Figma.' Four illustrated spy-like characters in hats and sunglasses hold tools including goggles, a magnifying glass, a drone, and a component-labelled card. A black-and-white photo shows speaker Luke Murphy, Principal Design Advocate at zeroheight, smiling.
Design system contribution is like a mountain range.
Many ways up, many ways down - and it gets very steep at the top.
Read about Mount Contribution - a framework for more effective design system contributions 👇
hubs.ly/Q04n4BpX0
ALT Blog banner reading 'Mount Contribution: A framework for more effective design system contributions.' To the right, hand-drawn illustrations of a teal letter "a", a peach circle with an arrow, grey mountains, a pink "Button" shape, a cursor, and decorative swirls, on a pale pink background. zeroheight logo bottom left.
Your coding agent doesn’t know your design system, so it guesses.
Connect zeroheight MCP to tools like Cursor or Claude Code and it stops inventing - pulling your actual components, tokens, and usage rules on every generation.
Learn more ➡️ hubs.li/Q04npRL20
ALT Screenshot of a code editor showing a diff for a savings dashboard component. On the left, highlighted code changes show updated Button components and layout elements. On the right, an AI assistant panel summarises the changes, including updated design system components, icons and design tokens.
Gated access and permissions slow down design system adoption. 🔐
With zeroheight, your design system lives in one place. Now, anyone authorised through your identity provider can access it via MCP, without needing a zeroheight account.
Learn more: hubs.li/Q04npmjs0
ALT What's new" graphic on a dotted cream background. Bold black headline reads "What's new." To the right, illustrated elements float around a laptop: a colour swatch, a card with an icon, a screenshot thumbnail featuring an illustrated character face with a purple triangle overlay, a teal MCP icon, sparkles, a cursor, and a friendly illustrated character giving a thumbs up behind the laptop screen. The zeroheight logo appears bottom left.
An AI agent can whip up a POC in minutes. Staying on-system is the hard part.
That's where License to Build comes in: our new webinar series exploring real-world use cases for briefing AI agents with your design system context.
📆 July 7th, 4pm GMT.
👉 hubs.li/Q04nftv_0
ALT Webinar banner for 'License to Build: Briefing agents to build on-system code, then audit it,' Tuesday 7th July 2026, 4.00pm BST / 11.00am ET / 8.00am PT. Illustration of a spy-like character in a fedora and sunglasses holding a folder, alongside a code icon and a checklist with tick and cross marks, on a mint green grid background.
The handover between design and development isn't always straightforward - and drift between design output and the end user experience is a real cost.
Amy Rogers explores how AI agents could be the answer 👇
hubs.li/Q04mCSPC0
ALT Blog header image for a zeroheight article titled "Eliminate the back-and-forth in developer handovers with AI agents." The illustration shows a friendly pixel-art robot juggling three coloured tiles representing design system components — orange with a sync icon, mint green with a component icon, and purple with a code/token icon — alongside a cursor arrow and sparkle details.
Every good agent needs a briefing.
Licence to Build is our new webinar series on giving AI agents your design system as context.
Dispatch #1: How to brief Claude Code via the zeroheight MCP to scaffold a POC, audit it and ship.
📅 Tue 7 July, 4pm GMT
hubs.li/Q04nftHN0
ALT Webinar banner for 'License to Build: Briefing agents to build on-system code, then audit it,' Tuesday 7th July 2026, 4.00pm BST / 11.00am ET / 8.00am PT. Illustration of a spy-like character in a fedora and sunglasses holding a folder, alongside a code icon and a checklist with tick and cross marks, on a mint green grid background.
Converge 2026 is coming round fast.
We’ve got our next speaker lined up and ready to talk all things design systems.
But can you guess who it is? 👀
Get your Converge tickets here: hubs.li/Q04mZ2XK0
Do you know how mature your design system is?
Introducing zeroheight's Design System Maturity model - 29 questions, 6 axes, scored between stages 1-4.
Get honest, personalised results in minutes.
Take the test 👇
hubs.li/Q04mFKZy0
ALT Promotional graphic for zeroheight's Design System Maturity Model. Black background with a large dark red question mark on the right. White bold headline reads "How mature is your design system?" Subtext reads "Six axes. Four stages. One honest picture of your design system." zeroheight logo in the bottom left, red "Take the test" button in the bottom right.
Design tokens: the key to scaling your brand across a product team.
But how do you go about creating your first design token system?
Louis walks through best practices for creating, documenting, versioning and syncing your first design token system.
👉 hubs.li/Q04mgSzq0
ALT An illustrated hand holds a collection of design system elements — a teal tile with a group icon, an orange tile with an arrow, a heart shape, and a textured card — alongside a clock, a cursor, and decorative squiggle details. The image accompanies a zeroheight blog post titled "How to start a design token system with confidence."