Érica Menin Design Systems + AI Workflows
It doesn't read between the lines. It reads your tokens, your rules,
your docs, and guesses where context is missing.
This is where I work: turning hidden system knowledge into clearer
rules, docs, and workflows.
A design system built only for people is easy for AI to get wrong.
Beautiful storytelling, visual examples, and decisions left between the lines all leave space for guesses. And guesses make messes.
We don’t have all the answers yet. But one thing is clear: we
have to be more intentional. Straightforward rules,
README files, component
guidance in code, design contracts, you name it.
The format matters less than the intent: we can’t ignore how machines read the system and just hope pray they make the right decisions.
That’s where my work is now: making design system decisions easier for people and AI to find, apply, and trust.
In practice:
turning our documentation checklist into a skill
and
my first Cursor command.
A few examples from my design system work: aligning Figma and code,
modernising foundations, documenting decisions, and helping product
teams move without breaking everything. For more details, feel free
to
contact me.
Writing
carefully
honestly about design systems
and AI in
Design Systems Unfiltered.
You don’t need to rethink your whole design system to start making it work better with AI.
AI is not breaking any of your rules, and that’s the problem.
Creating my first command and skill, and starting to learn when AI actually helps in my day to day.
👻
Good design system work often goes unnoticed: fewer repeated questions, clearer decisions, and less time fighting the system.
🪄
AI composes validly. A human composes well. Valid and good are not the same thing: AI can pick the right components, break no rules, and still miss the point.
📓
Cover the basics. Then add depth where the system is already showing you the need: repeated questions, recurring mistakes, and places where people or AI get stuck over and over.
🤖
Fix the foundations first. If components, rules, examples, docs, Figma, and code don’t agree, AI will only make the mess louder.
Hey, I'm Érica. I've been in design for 15+ years and somewhere along the way became the person who gets excited about taking messy, complex things and making them work.
I write about what I learn as I go: the wins, the awkward moments, the “well, that didn’t work” parts, at Design Systems Unfiltered. No BS.
Remote-first, AI-curious, and always looking for ways to make complex work a little simpler.
erica@portfolio:~$
