#design-tokens

#design-tokens

This article shows a practical pattern for generating utility classes in CSS I've used in one form or another since 2016. Utility classes can give us a fast, consistent way to apply design system values in markup, without sprinkling hard‑coded styles across your project. As I discussed in my article on Creating Design System Friendly Snowflakes with Utility Classes, utility classes can really help offer a middle ground between rigid components and completely custom CSS.

The course digs into everything that goes into creating design token systems and themeable user interfaces to help Multi All-The-Things organizations meet the multifarious needs of their digital products. Design tokens may be the latest incarnation, but software creators have been creating themeable user interfaces for quite a long time! As with all things, we can study history to learn from our past to inform our future. So let's dig in!

Design tokens represent a fundamental shift in how we manage design decisions in modern software development. They serve as the smallest building blocks of visual design.