Patterns Day is back!

Mark your calendar: Thursday, March 7th, 2024. That’s when Patterns Day will return for its third edition.

Patterns Day is a one-day event focused on design systems. It’s for designers, developers, project managers, writers, and anyone else who’s working with design systems, pattern libraries, style guides, and components. Tickets are on sale now!

Once again, Patterns Day will be in the magnificent Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton, with its historic charm and dangerously comfortable seats.

The first Patterns Day was all the way back in 2017. Then we had the second Patterns Day in 2019. You can watch videos of the talks from both years.

We all know what happened after 2019. Nothing like a global pandemic to stop an event in its tracks.

Now, finally, Patterns Day is returning in 2024.

After all this time, is there still a need for an event focused on design systems?

In my opinion, the answer is “more than ever!”

When Clearleft first ran Patterns Day, we had been doing design systems work for a while, but other organisations were only at the start of their journey. Many of the attendees were from companies that were dabbling in design systems, or planned to put a design system together.

That situation has changed. Now most organisations either have at least some experience with design systems. Many companies have got design systems up and running.

But the challenges haven’t gone away. They’ve just changed. You might no longer need to convince anyone that a design system is a good idea, but you might well be struggling to convince people to use the design system you’ve got.

It can be lonely work. That’s why Patterns Day is so vital. It’s a chance to get together with other people going through the same struggles. You’ll have an opportunity to learn from their successes and failures. Most of all, you’ll have the reassurance that you are not alone.

I know that makes it sound more like therapy than a conference, but honestly, that’s where the true value lies.

We’ve already got some fantastic speakers lined up, but there are just as many still to come!

Can you tell that I’m very excited about this?

It would be lovely to see there. Tickets will cost £255, but you can secure your place now at the super early bird price of just £195. Dither ye not!

Can’t wait to see you in Brighton on March 7th—it’s going to be a day to remember!

Patterns Day 2017 | Flickr

Marc took some great pictures at Patterns Day.

Patterns Day 2017: Paul Lloyd on Vimeo

Paul pulls no punches in this rousing talk from Patterns Day.

The transcript is on his site.

Fantasies of the Future / Paul Robert Lloyd

Paul has published the slides and transcript of his knock-out talk at Patterns Day. This a must-read: superb stuff!

Design systems are an attempt to add a layer of logic and reasoning over a series decisions made by complex, irrational, emotional human beings. As such, they are subject to individual perspectives, biases, and aspirations.

How does the culture in which they are made effect the resulting design?

Revisiting Metadesign for Murph – Smithery

I’m really excited about John’s talk at this year’s UX London. Feels like a good time to revisit his excellent talk from dConstruct 2015:

I’m going to be opening up the second day of UX London 2024, 18th-20th June. As part of that talk, I’ll be revisiting a talk called Metadesign for Murph which I gave at dConstruct in 2015. It might be one of my favourite talks that I’ve ever given.

Return to UX London – Smithery

I’m very excited that John is speaking at this year’s UX London!