FAQ

Because the system is the artifact. The portfolio is a portfolio of design and code, and the design system is the most important piece of the code. Hiding the system would be hiding the work. A hiring manager who wants to see how I think should see the system in place, in the case studies, in the components, in the docs.

You can read it and learn from it. You shouldn't copy it as-is. The system is calibrated to a personal portfolio and a research study; it isn't a drop-in for a SaaS dashboard. The tokens, the components, and the docs are all in the open, so you can take the parts that fit your project and leave the rest.

Three reasons. First, I design in code; the components live in code. Second, a Figma library would imply the design and the code are two parallel sources of truth; here, the code is the source. Third, the system is small enough that a Figma library would be more friction than it's worth. If a Figma library is the right call someday, this page will be updated.

Because 23 components is what the site needs. Adding a component to the system is a 30-day commitment; if a component isn't earning its place, it gets cut at the quarterly review. The next component won't be added because the site needed it once; it'll be added because three case studies needed it.

Because the constraints are visible. A library makes the easy things easy and the hard things impossible. The site has a small number of genuinely custom components (the study diagrams, the doc shell) and a large number of small ones (button, input, card). Hand-rolling the small ones is faster in the long run, because the next change doesn't have to argue with the library's abstraction.

Because the site is the artifact, and the doc system is the most visible part of the artifact. A doc system that reads like a real design system is more convincing than one that reads like a Notion page. The opinion is the point.

Yes. The site's contact page links to email. Messages are read and answered. The system has been improved by feedback from at least four people in the last year.

Probably. v2 is what the system becomes when the constraints change. The constraints today are: warm-neutral palette, serif + sans, single ease curve, no dark mode. When one of those changes, v2 starts. Until then, the system grows by addition, not by version.