InfoQ: Scaling the BBC's Web Design System at 4.8 Billion Requests

Scaling the BBC’s Web Design System at 4.8 Billion Requests

In this QCon London talk, Sophie Beaumont lifts the hood on BBC’s WebCore—its web design system serving 4.8 billion requests a month across 10 major brands. She kicks off with the “Squiffy” Garden Fence cautionary tale before laying out how a federated “gardening” contribution model and flexible onboarding keep teams in sync.

Beaumont dives into the magic of theming tokens (aka the “Levers” system) for consistent styling, enforces mandatory component ownership to avoid orphans, and tackles the complexity of 235 sub-brands with a dynamic, accessible color picker tool. She wraps up by distilling the key maintainability principles that any large-scale design system needs.

Watch on YouTube