Summary
An essential part of creating a Design System is to make distribution and content flow sustainable. When the task is bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet, the challenge gets massive! How can DesignOps and Automation become a facilitator for this challenge? Join Senior Software Engineer & Designer Luca Rager from Xbox as he takes us through their innovative take on design systems. Luca will illustrate how Sketch’s flexibility and modern DesignOps automation has allowed Xbox to package, theme and easily distribute component libraries. Furthermore, how their system bridges the gap between the Xbox Design System team and the wider product teams at Xbox.
Key Insights
-
•
Xbox Design System supports four themes including high contrast to ensure broad accessibility.
-
•
The component library needed to work across multiple platforms: TV, desktop, and mobile.
-
•
Theme customization is achieved by swapping foundational Sketch libraries rather than relying on overrides.
-
•
Every component and foundation (theme file) exists as its own Sketch file to support clarity and easy iteration.
-
•
Clyde, an internal automated tool, packages components into Sketch libraries and generates design tokens for engineers.
-
•
The design system team focused on creating easy-to-adopt kits for product designers to reduce complexity and improve uptake.
-
•
Multidisciplinary team members, including designers with engineering skills, help bridge gaps between disciplines.
-
•
Accessibility experts are embedded in the design process, enriching documentation and audits within the system.
-
•
Governance balances flexibility for product teams to propose and customize components with ensuring consistency from the core team.
-
•
Integration with Microsoft tools like Azure and Teams allows realtime notifications and seamless collaboration around design system updates.
Notable Quotes
"Gaming is for everyone anywhere, and Xbox has evolved way beyond the box under your TV."
"Our mission required us to build something fast, flexible, and scalable across many different product needs."
"A button is just a rectangle with some text, but our magic is in how we theme and customize it using foundations."
"Instead of overrides, we swap out entire theme files to customize components for different product teams."
"We realized the real problem was a people problem, not just tooling complexity."
"Sketch’s open file format allowed us to build custom tooling that shapes the design data to our needs."
"Clyde runs every time there’s a change, generating libraries and tokens to keep everyone up to date."
"Engineers love having individual components in files because it makes implementation much easier."
"Design system adoption exploded when we focused on the needs of everyone who builds, extends, or uses it."
"Accessibility and research are part of our org, not just consultants, which makes a huge difference in quality."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Doing design right early, just like failing early, helps to prevent time-consuming mistakes."
Noreen Whysel Katie SaindonShort Take #4: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
December 6, 2022
"Survey data should be treated as zero-party data that fuels personalized communications and lifecycle marketing."
Aleksandra Korczynska Caroline Jarrett Justyna ParmeeSurvey Tools
March 12, 2026
"We enable employees to provide unlimited comments which we analyze with Amazon Comprehend for sentiment."
Adel Du ToitGet Your CFO To Say: 'Our Strategic Goal is User Obsession'
June 10, 2022
"Research office hours sound good, but many people feel nervous or don’t know if they’re ready to participate."
Crystal YanBuilding a Customer-Centric Culture
March 30, 2020
"Design operators must create scaffolding that shapes design practice, not just produce deliverables."
Dave MaloufClosing Keynote: Amplify. Not Optimize.
October 24, 2019
"Consumers are clamoring for payment to be embedded in their devices because payment can be a pain point in digital commerce."
Karen PascoeDeveloping Experience Teams and Talent in the Enterprise
June 8, 2016
"Many product teams have never come face to face with their revenue numbers before, so cross-functional exposure is eye-opening."
Jackie HoLead Effectively While Preserving Team Autonomy with Growth Boards
January 8, 2024
"Say no — that was really hard, but when you say no, you’re saying yes to the right things."
Carla Casariego Sarah SpencerDesignOps in Wonderland
October 24, 2019
"Toy design is not about the toy itself but a tool that unlocks unlimited possibilities before a child."
Alëna IouguinaDesigning Systems at Scale
November 7, 2018
