Design DNA
13 - 14 Nov 2025
Online
Design DNA
Ashley Zhu
Ashley Zhu
Ashley Zhu
Design Systems Education Lead at Capital One
Design Systems Education Lead at Capital One
Design Systems Education Lead at Capital One
About the speaker
About the speaker
About the speaker
Ashley Zhu is a UX designer specializing in design systems, based in Washington, D.C. She currently serves as the Education Lead for Capital One’s enterprise design system, where she’s built scalable learning experiences that help teams adopt complex systems with clarity, confidence, and joy. With a background in communication design and a passion for creative infrastructure, Ashley has led initiatives across native and web platforms—spanning token migrations, component redesigns, and Figma tool-building. Her work has enabled enterprise-wide theming, accelerated implementation timelines, and empowered teams to work more cohesively across disciplines. Ashley speaks regularly about the delight of design systems and believes great systems should empower users, not overwhelm them. Beyond her core role, she co-leads a physical experience design community and spends her evenings social dancing. She believes design systems aren’t just about making experiences consistent, but instead making a space for play, creative collaboration, and a little bit of magic!
Ashley Zhu is a UX designer specializing in design systems, based in Washington, D.C. She currently serves as the Education Lead for Capital One’s enterprise design system, where she’s built scalable learning experiences that help teams adopt complex systems with clarity, confidence, and joy. With a background in communication design and a passion for creative infrastructure, Ashley has led initiatives across native and web platforms—spanning token migrations, component redesigns, and Figma tool-building. Her work has enabled enterprise-wide theming, accelerated implementation timelines, and empowered teams to work more cohesively across disciplines. Ashley speaks regularly about the delight of design systems and believes great systems should empower users, not overwhelm them. Beyond her core role, she co-leads a physical experience design community and spends her evenings social dancing. She believes design systems aren’t just about making experiences consistent, but instead making a space for play, creative collaboration, and a little bit of magic!
Ashley Zhu is a UX designer specializing in design systems, based in Washington, D.C. She currently serves as the Education Lead for Capital One’s enterprise design system, where she’s built scalable learning experiences that help teams adopt complex systems with clarity, confidence, and joy. With a background in communication design and a passion for creative infrastructure, Ashley has led initiatives across native and web platforms—spanning token migrations, component redesigns, and Figma tool-building. Her work has enabled enterprise-wide theming, accelerated implementation timelines, and empowered teams to work more cohesively across disciplines. Ashley speaks regularly about the delight of design systems and believes great systems should empower users, not overwhelm them. Beyond her core role, she co-leads a physical experience design community and spends her evenings social dancing. She believes design systems aren’t just about making experiences consistent, but instead making a space for play, creative collaboration, and a little bit of magic!
Lecture
Lecture
Lecture
Muscle Memory for Design Systems: Helping Teams Learn the Steps
Muscle Memory for Design Systems: Helping Teams Learn the Steps
Muscle Memory for Design Systems: Helping Teams Learn the Steps
Design systems aren’t just libraries—they’re a way of working, thinking, and moving. But too often, teams are handed components with no rhythm, no guidance, and definitely no room to practice. What if the real impact of a system isn’t in the files, but in your team’s muscle memory? This talk reframes design systems as habits, not just tools, and explores how to build fluency through behaviorally informed education, interactive workshops, and co-creation rituals. Drawing from her dual background as a dancer and a design systems education lead, Ashley Zhu shares how she approached adoption like choreography—through repetition, rhythm, and intuitive flow. The result is a scalable, human-centered education strategy that supported full mobile migration and led to measurable improvements in clarity, velocity, and team confidence. You’ll learn: How to use behavior change principles to unlock real adoption How to make education approachable, relevant, and playful Real examples and success metrics from Capital One’s rollout Whether you’re scaling a system, trying to boost adoption, or just want to help your teams feel confident using the tools you’ve built, this talk will give you practical ways to help them think, make, and move with systems—until it becomes second nature.
Design systems aren’t just libraries—they’re a way of working, thinking, and moving. But too often, teams are handed components with no rhythm, no guidance, and definitely no room to practice. What if the real impact of a system isn’t in the files, but in your team’s muscle memory? This talk reframes design systems as habits, not just tools, and explores how to build fluency through behaviorally informed education, interactive workshops, and co-creation rituals. Drawing from her dual background as a dancer and a design systems education lead, Ashley Zhu shares how she approached adoption like choreography—through repetition, rhythm, and intuitive flow. The result is a scalable, human-centered education strategy that supported full mobile migration and led to measurable improvements in clarity, velocity, and team confidence. You’ll learn: How to use behavior change principles to unlock real adoption How to make education approachable, relevant, and playful Real examples and success metrics from Capital One’s rollout Whether you’re scaling a system, trying to boost adoption, or just want to help your teams feel confident using the tools you’ve built, this talk will give you practical ways to help them think, make, and move with systems—until it becomes second nature.
Design systems aren’t just libraries—they’re a way of working, thinking, and moving. But too often, teams are handed components with no rhythm, no guidance, and definitely no room to practice. What if the real impact of a system isn’t in the files, but in your team’s muscle memory? This talk reframes design systems as habits, not just tools, and explores how to build fluency through behaviorally informed education, interactive workshops, and co-creation rituals. Drawing from her dual background as a dancer and a design systems education lead, Ashley Zhu shares how she approached adoption like choreography—through repetition, rhythm, and intuitive flow. The result is a scalable, human-centered education strategy that supported full mobile migration and led to measurable improvements in clarity, velocity, and team confidence. You’ll learn: How to use behavior change principles to unlock real adoption How to make education approachable, relevant, and playful Real examples and success metrics from Capital One’s rollout Whether you’re scaling a system, trying to boost adoption, or just want to help your teams feel confident using the tools you’ve built, this talk will give you practical ways to help them think, make, and move with systems—until it becomes second nature.
Contact us if you have any questions.
gabriela@designdnaconf.com
Contact us if you have any questions.
gabriela@designdnaconf.com