05 —What this is really about
Designers closer to the code — a foundation your team owns and grows.
The heart of this proposal
Everything before this phase argued against the handoff. Everything after it describes one thing: a way of working where designers are closer to the code, the code is the one official version, and the team that owns it is Pix4D’s.
The redesign is the reason. The goal is a better way of working.
A new pix4d.com is what launches. What lasts is how it gets built: a setup where the design system lives in one place, in code, and the whole team can work on it. The site is the first thing this way of working produces — not the whole point of it.
Designers work directly on the one official version.
Not on a copy of it, not on a picture of it. Designers shape components in the codebase itself, helped by tools along the way — and engineers review everything before it goes in. Closer to the code doesn't mean becoming engineers; it means working where the decisions actually happen.
Built together, inside Pix4D's own codebase, from day one.
Our team works alongside Pix4D's design team — in Pix4D's own codebase, matching the standards and needs of the components that are live today. Each component keeps its connections — content, translations, context — so what changes is the look, not the wiring underneath. Nothing is built off to the side and tossed over a wall.
The finish line is your team standing on its own.
Success isn't the day we hand it over — it's the day you no longer need us. A solid, agreed foundation your own team understands, maintains, and grows without us. The project ends; the way of working stays.
Figma becomes a view of the codebase.
Generated from the system, always up to date, handy for exploring ideas and talking with stakeholders — and never the source. The library Pix4D asked for still exists in Figma. It just stops being a second copy you have to maintain.
Next
A goal needs a way to get there. Next: the workflow — how designers shape the system directly, with engineers in control of what goes live.