Conclusion

Levittown is known as the first true American suburb. Not one town, in fact, but seven planned communities in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Puerto Rico, the Levittowns were designed by William Levitt with the goal of making housing affordable for Americans after World War II.

Levitt made housing affordable through standardization: the houses were exactly the same, with a white picket fence, green lawns, and modern appliances. With built-in TVs and heated floors, all of the features of these homes evoked an idealistic view of suburban life. Production of the homes was modeled on assembly lines; building each home took twenty-seven steps, with each construction worker trained to perform just one. Standardization saved on costs, so houses were built quickly and inexpensively, and more people were able to afford homes. It was the American dream!

Except it wasn’t the American dream for everyone. Levitt refused to sell houses to people of color; the Levittowns were segregated communities. Levitt famously said, “We can solve a housing problem or we can try to solve a racial problem, but we can’t do both.”

Around the same time, another developer, Morris Milgram, had a different mission—to create housing for everyone. His suburb, Concord Park, had the same idyllic features of Levittown, white picket fences and all. But Milgram set out to create a racially inclusive neighborhood, making the dream of the suburban life accessible to all Americans.

Systems aren’t neutral. Systems reflect the values of the people who make the system.

Your company’s design system is more than a set of tools. Through its components, guidelines, and patterns, it tells a story about what your organization values. In other words, your design system reflects your organization. You have an opportunity—and an imperative—to use your design system to make your products more inclusive. Once something is in a system, it travels fast. A decision to bake accessibility into your components from the outset is a big step toward making your products more accessible.

You can’t do this unless a heterogeneous group of people contributes to your design system. Pay attention to the demographics of your design-system contributors. Do they represent a range of disciplines and backgrounds? If not, then you need to make an effort to reach out to the people who aren’t contributing and understand why they’re reluctant. Do they feel intimidated? Are the methods of contribution unclear? The more diverse the people who help shape your system are, the stronger and more inclusive your system will be.

Design systems are powerful. Use that power responsibly.