Work/OpenDS
Case study · 02
Design systems documentation that survives contact with a real product
How I’m building the knowledge layer design systems actually need — told in development, because that’s where it is.
Written while the work is still in progress. The honest status is part of the point.
01 — ChallengeEvery design system I’ve worked with has the same gap: the tokens and components are the visible part, but the layer underneath — the decisions, the trade-offs, the documented exceptions — is where teams actually live or die. OpenDS is my attempt to build that layer properly, out in the open.
Process, so far
02 — ProcessThe build is deliberately public: the repo, the backlog and the design notes are all visible. The work started where my day job kept asking questions — what makes documentation survive contact with a real product roadmap — and it stays in development until the answers hold up outside my own projects.
Where it stands
03 — OutcomeThe honest status: in development. What exists so far is the documentation structure and the thinking that makes it work; what doesn’t exist yet is a stable release. The moment it ships, this page will say so — and the build journal in Writing is the unvarnished record of getting there.