The virtuous design system panopticon
AI as a design system ally. The watcher who says "yes, and..."
In 2022, I wrote a post called “Don’t become the design systems police.” It cautioned against using a design system (and the team behind it) as a mechanism for enforcement. Give teams a checklist, and all they’ll do is learn how to pass that inspection.
But maybe a few years can change things. What happens if we throw AI into the mix?
We don’t need a team to review all those product surfaces for design system alignment and adherence. We have a tool that can do it in real time. At scale. Across legacy and in-flight work. UI, language, accessibility, interaction patterns - it’s all in reach. Our oversight can be embedded, ambient, and always-on.
If we use this carelessly, then it’s going to become exactly what I warned against.
A surveillance system. A source of shame. A way to more easily flag exceptions and punish your drift.
The design systems police are there - and now they have a perfect memory and they never go to sleep.
But there is another way to look at it.
Can we make AI a guide instead of a gatekeeper?
Something that says:
Want a suggestion to make this feel more like us?
Do you want to see how other people solved this with the patterns available?
Can I help to make this better?
We’ve still got a panopticon. But not for control, it’s for possibility.
I gave a nod to this before, in “When AI can do everything else, your job is to make it good.”
If we can pass over our auditing to AI, then we can free people up to handle the intent. Let AI support the consistency, then we have space to explore.
Our panopticon becomes one that’s about clarity.
And it starts to drive our momentum. We’ve got access to an always-on suggestion engine. The watcher that helps us move faster - not because it says “no”, but because it’s always whispering:
“Yes, and…”
Further reading
Steadman, P. Samuel Bentham’s Panopticon. Journal of Bentham Studies, 2012.
Mirowski, P. et al. Artificial Intelligence Improvisation. Improbiotics, ~2021.