AI in the design tools

Member lesson

Design tokens, and letting a machine read your system

Lesson 8 of 10 in AI in the design tools.

Quick intro to Design Tokens · Penpot
Lesson

A token is a name with a value behind it. Rather than a hex code in ninety places, there is one definition called surface or primary action, and everything points at it. Change it once and the whole system moves.

A single paint pot on a high shelf feeds thin tubes that run to dozens of small objects around a room, all the same colour. A hand pours a new colour into the pot, and it flows down every tube at once.
One pot feeds everything. Change it once and every tab, card and stripe changes with it.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A named design value: colour, spacing, radius, type size. Defined once, used everywhere.”

    • Token
    • Indemnity
    • Generative layer
    • Generative extend
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A token pointing at another token. Brand blue becomes the primary action colour.”

    • Plugin
    • Alias
    • Variable
    • Token
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “One definition that both the design file and the code read.”

    • Single source of truth
    • Feature theatre
    • Abandonware
    • Prototype

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