Thread by @danmall

One of the biggest pain points for #designsystem teams is naming (components, patterns, tokens… anything).

Here are my most useful tips for naming design system things (part 1).

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A few years ago, I was lucky enough to help @RFERL with their design system. They had—and still have to this day—this component all over the site. What would you call this? A carousel? A banner? A slider?

Wanna know what they called it?

They called it “Fred.”

Seriously.

Look at the source code. The element is called <div class="fredContent">.

Working with this team, I learned one of my most valuable and most used lessons to date about #designsystems (and about working with people in general):

It doesn’t matter what you agree on. It only matters that you agree.

I encounter many teams that stress out searching for “objective” and “intuitive” names. They run week-long workshops, dozens of surveys, and mounds of card-sorting exercise, all with little return.

Stop it. In my experience, there’s no such thing as an objective/intuitive name.

Sure, there are CONVENTIONAL names that have emerged, but convention is dependent on context, history, and many other political and social dynamics.

Language changes constantly as the needs of its speakers change. babbel.com/en/magazine/ho…

Within a context—like a team or a company—we can GIVE any word meaning.

The @RFERL team DECIDED and AGREED that “Fred” was an acceptable name for this component. That decision—regardless of how silly WE think it is—allowed them to move forward on more important tasks.

Loosen your requirements of finding intuitive names and start noticing what your teams can agree to, even if not objectively “good.” The more you can open your mind to different versions of what successful naming looks like, the more success you’ll find in your naming endeavors.

In part 2 of my naming suggestions, I’ll share my top 2 strategies for getting people to agree (on anything).

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