Nathan A Curtis
@nathanacurtis.bsky.social
Design systems consultant at Directed Edges in Fairfax, VA USA. Figma Specs plugin creator. Blogger on @medium. Formerly EightShapes. Supports Arsenal, University of Chicago and Virginia Tech. From Ohio, originally.
Well that is about as favorable a Champions League bracket side as Arsenal could have ever imagined.
SmashingConf is back for 2026! We’re bringing thoughtfully curated conferences to Amsterdam 🇳🇱 Freiburg 🇩🇪 and Antwerp 🇧🇪. - Actionable talks on design systems, UX, accessibility, CSS and more - Hands-on workshops - Side events & networking that actually help you connect smashingconf.com/conferences/
SmashingConf in-person Conferences 2026 — Friendly, inclusive & fun events for web designers and developers.
Looking for a practical conference about web design and development? We organize three hybrid conferences in 2026: Amsterdam, Freiburg, and Antwerp. Get your ticket now! Front-end, design, UX and…
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Why are LLM plans so ridiculously conservative in time estimates? "Your POC will take 1 week and implementation 13 weeks." It just finished the POC (with added scope) in 1 hour and says implementation is now 3 days. Like, is it taunting me with "Without LLM" estimates?
So my now for a Saturday morning instructing an LLM to "Implement REST API conversion a Figma library file into my Anova data model based on Github spec kit's plan and tasks.", going to take a shower, coming back and realizing I didn't autoapprove the CLI commands and it got stuck on step 1.
I started using GPT 5.2 (instead of Claude 4.5 or similar) for plugin development yesterday. Today, I noticed the havoc this wreaked on my machine's energy consumption. Holy camole.
I hate penalty shootouts in football. I would much rather see a “Remove a player for the pitch every three minutes” and see what happens
So, I won "Best Plugin" for the Figma Specs plugin at the @zeroheight.com design system awards last night, and am excited! I told my family, and two my kids reacted this way. I'm now also slightly confused.
I am seriously tripping out. I just experienced two agentic "party mode" rounds of a team discussing an ADR of spec data schema updates for absolute positioning and Figma's Grid. Their perspectives were so thoughtful, the decision correct. Is this my (short lived) future before I'm replaced?
I have converted my Anova plugin to use Figma color tokens sensitive to Figma's light/dark mode. I like the results, and despite the lack of personality, value that the plugin conveys the same visual language as its parent environment.
I'm improving my Anova plugin that generates component specs consistent with a JSON schema to manage specs in the file and easily consolidate and copy them into code.
Slots in Design Systems:Improving flexibility through custom composition inside components My latest on Substack nathanacurtis.substack.com/p/slots-in-d...
Slots in Design Systems
Improving flexibility through custom composition within components
nathanacurtis.substack.com
As design system teams start applying Figma's slots, they may best cope with having Menzel's "Let It Go" on repeat in the background. Relinquishing control is going to be... very difficult for some people.
Analysis of Variants and the Anova Plugin: Generating component data that design systems teams need The Anova plugin, recently released in the Figma community, could be a part of a process that manages component data from (and back into) Figma. medium.com/@nathanacurt...
Analysis of Variants
Generating component data that design systems teams need
medium.com
You know it's gonna be a good week when you start it off talking to DESIGN SYSTEM WIZARDS @nathanacurtis.bsky.social and @bencallahan.com!
I didn't have Quine-McClusky on my bingo card for things I'd learn about this year, but there you have it. All in an effort to make visible something designers have been implying for years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quine%E...
Quine–McCluskey algorithm - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Welcome back to The Question, @nathanacurtis.bsky.social! This week, we're exploring where #AI is failing #designsystems. Answer by Wednesday to get your invite to the deep dive on Thursday at Noon Eastern: bit.ly/answerTheQue... This only works if you join in! See you Thursday, b
I just got called the "Dungeon Master of Design Systems" by a client collaborator. Not sure how to take that one, but sure, let's go on a quest and I'll be your guide!
I've shared this before, but it's awesome. Building Smart Layouts, slides from @ishadeed.com's recent talk @cssday.nl www.figma.com/deck/NewdIWN... #CSS #FrontEnd #WebDev #WebDesign
Figma
Created with Figma
figma.com
I'm diving perhaps too deep as I develop teaching materials for UI Component Props. I'm sensing I could do a whole conference talk on tips and tricks for solely enum/variant props.
I'm familiar coding best practices for with Web Components and React when it comes to composition and slots. I'm not much at all with SwiftUI. What resources best explain the equivalent practices for slots on SwiftUI?
At @intodesignsystems.bsky.social in a couple weeks, I can't wait to present the various tools I use to communicate component architecture ideas in Figma, including props, enums and layers I combine into an overall "API sketch."
I found @katielangerman.bsky.social's spreadsheets in her Config 2025 Connecting Code and Craft talk very similar to my token taxonomy efforts: define 'em, transform 'em, and map 'em to migrate production. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6E...
I am so distracted today by this huge event. So much anticipation. So many exciting things I have waited so long to see. I'm talking about Arsenal vs PSG, people. Go Gunners.
One Smashing Conferences event, two Spectacular Components workshops! I'll be leading TWO full day workshops in New York, NY June 23 and 24. The first digs into component structure, purpose, anatomy and styling with design token, the other digs into props, layout and slots.
In town for spring break and college visits, a stop at Edmonds Oast Brewery for the Real Madrid match, and I won a @charsenal.com raffle for @arsenalfc.bsky.social merch. Woot! Great community, go Gunners!
