How We Built the Android Design System for The New York Times
summary
Builds a single Android library that centralizes JSON-defined design tokens and auto-generates Kotlin themes and component builders via Style Dictionary and a KSP annotation processor so apps share the same color, typography, and spacing values. Components (buttons, dialogs, story list items) wrap Material 3 and expose theme DSLs with cascading inheritance for multi-brand overrides. Visual regression uses Paparazzi screenshots, plus an Android integration app like Storybook to prove components render correctly and speed adoption.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Android design system intro
- 1:25NYT needed design system
- 3:31Goals for Times Product Language
- 4:14Design tokens foundation
- 6:22Automating token conversion
- 7:25Reusable Android UI components
- 9:10Customizing shared components
- 10:35Components on Material 3
- 11:58Theming components per app
- 13:42Cascading theme inheritance
- 15:47Packaging design system
- 17:36Screenshot testing for consistency
- 18:40Integration app for demos
- 19:21Driving adoption with docs
- 19:42Future plans
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