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
"Digital accessibility means making your online products usable by everyone regardless of how they access them."
Rebecca ToppsPlanning and conducting remote usability studies for accessibility
September 10, 2020
"Collaboration should include stakeholders beyond the product trio, from marketing to sales and customer support."
Angelos ArnisNavigating the Rapid Shifts in Tech's Turbulent Terrain
October 2, 2023
"I found myself doing recruiting and DEI work on top of my UX research job—work that wasn’t mine to do."
Lisanne NormanWhy I Left Research
March 27, 2023
"You have to hold people’s hands through your organization—not just hype about AI."
Erika FlowersAI-Readiness: Preparing NASA for a Data-Driven, Agile Future
June 10, 2025
"Magnification can cover the entire screen two to ten times, and users pan around to see different areas."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
June 9, 2021
"Design thinking at IBM is not just for designers; it’s how we want all 380,000 people to think about problems."
Adam CutlerPeople + Places + Practices = Outcomes
June 8, 2016
"Tool use and function calling are what make agents possible, letting models call tools and reason through tasks."
Peter Van DijckBuilding impactful AI products for design and product leaders, Part 1: The new product journey
July 16, 2025
"The conference is a single track, so everyone listens to the same content together, fostering community focus."
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Victor Udoewa Jennifer StricklandEverything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022
"We need everyone to roll up their sleeves and be a part of the creative process to spark innovation and even delight."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What responsibilities should design ops take on regarding frameworks like onboarding and career growth templates?
What content and features are available in the free versus gold subscription tiers?
Why is human oversight critical in integrating AI-generated content within design and development workflows?