TL;DR: You can preorder my new Atomic Design Certification Course for only $50!

Why create an Atomic Design Certification Course?

I’ve got big ambitious for this course, and I’m aiming to:

Help organizations increase design system adoption and create higher-quality, more connected digital products
Help every discipline understand design system foundations, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid.
Help people land jobs, get promoted, and achieve success
Write a second edition of my Atomic Design book, which will integrate over a decade’s worth of experience helping countless organizations implement Atomic Design to create and evolve design systems

Increase design system adoption

For years, people (me included!) were shouting for design systems to be taken seriously, with real people, time, resources, and money dedicated to them. And for the most part, that came to fruition!

However, we became victims of our own success. When design systems became “A Thing”, in many ways they became “A Separate Thing”. This split has created distance between design systems and the products they serve.

Illustration of "system" dot and "product" dot with distance and a dotted line between them

Since the very beginning, Atomic Design has helped people understand that user interfaces are interconnected, hierarchical systems. My course will describe how Atomic Design creates a virtuous circle between design systems and the products they serve. And not just in theory; the course will demonstrate how to practically and pragmatically implement Atomic Design in your everyday product design & development workflow.

An illustration showing "design system" dot with arrows connecting it to a "product" dot, with the 5 stages of atomic design appearing above the dots

Shared understanding and alignment

Design systems are critical infrastructure for creating successful digital products, and therefore need to be understood by everyone involved in product success.

Unfortunately, there is still so much confusion and misunderstanding about design systems. “Design systems” is such an unfortunate name, and that goddamn name continues to cause so much confusion across (even mature!) digital organizations. That’s why this course will be accessible and relevant to all experience levels and disciplines: developers, designers, product owners, managers, QA, and really anyone responsible for making and maintaining successful digital products. Design systems veterans know that the key to real success is in creating shared language, understanding, and alignment.

Help people land jobs, get promoted, achieve success

For reasons I still can’t quite comprehend, Atomic Design has been woven into the lexicon of design systems. It shows up in job postings, bizarre executive presentations, and the everyday language of digital teams around the world.

Perhaps that’s why people have asked me for years, “Is there a way to get certified in Atomic Design?” I used to think that was weird because my mind always went straight to sterile & soulless business certifications. But now I realize the real utility in an Atomic Design certification! A proper certification course can help move beyond bullshitty buzzwords and help people demonstrate that they know design system foundations, processes, and best practices.

Atomic Design, 2nd Edition!

Developing this course is the first step in bringing the 2nd edition of my Atomic Design book to life! I’ve spent the last decade living the principles and processes I describe in the book, and I’ve been wanting to bring all of my hard-earned, real-world lessons and insights back into it. This course is an important stepping stone for the next book edition, and they will exist as close companions. I’m stoked!

What’s in the online course?

The course will be a self-paced online video course, consisting of 5 chapters packed with fundamentals, best practices, real-world advice, and tons of resources. It will help you and your team:

Better understand the core concepts, benefits, and ROI of design systems
Master the Atomic Design methodology to actually connect your design system to real-world products.
Increase design system adoption by demonstrating how to tactically implement Atomic Design into your product workflow
Avoid common pitfalls and embrace best practices to ensure your design system becomes more valuable over time rather than dying on the vine

By completing the course, you can flex your design system mastery with a fancy certificate of completion that you can share on your resumé, LinkedIn, and your fridge.

Preorder the course for $50

You can preorder the course for $50 while I’m putting it together. In exchange for your support and patience, you’ll get:

A 33% savings off the full course price (which will be $75)
Preorder-exclusive videos and resources to accelerate your design system efforts
First access to new videos, resources, and materials as soon as they’re ready
Atomic Design ebook in ePub, PDF, and Kindle formats
A signficant discount on the forthcoming 2nd edition of the Atomic Design book
Certificate of completion to add to your resumé and LinkedIn
Access to our Slack community of cool & passionate design system enthusiasts
My eternal gratitude

I’d love it if you’d consider preordering the course! And if you want to master design tokens as well, you can save $200 by getting the Atomic Design + Subatomic course bundle!

And if you’re interested but not quite ready, you can sign up for my newfangled newsletter, where I’ll be sharing progress along the way.

I’m so excited to bring this course to life, and I’m so incredibly grateful for you and anyone who has helped carry atomic design forward. I’d also like to thank my daughter for demanding “pancake spaghetti” for breakfast over the weekend, as it gave me an idea for a weird little trailer for the course .