A Design system helps unify all the elements in one single source so you and your teams can imagine, design, and realize your product.
The central function of a design system is to facilitate and improve cross-collaboration and work performance between your different teams. A good design system will help increase the speed of development and keep the design quality consistent across your user interface.
Why do you need a design system?
The design system establishes the core of your brand line. It gives you a clear set of instructions about the different design components and patterns and helps you make informed decisions. So, if you’re looking to build or integrate a design system into your product, the first thing you need to understand is who will use it and how.
Here, you must define your goals. You need to list down what you already have in place and what is required to complete the system. For example, what is working or not, the tools involved in the process, and which level of maturity your teams have achieved.
Design systems define principles and help companies with all these goals. In short, a design system is a combination of tools and systematic processes that help organizations think and build digital products with a modular approach.
Below are four key principles you need to look out for:
- Purpose and shared values
- Design principles
- Brand identity & language
- Components & patterns
An analogy of a design system
The elements of a design system work like the different machines of a manufacturing plant. In every stage of the manufacturing process, these machines ensure the product gets finished with precision quality, and predefined standards.
In the analogy of a design system, these machines represent the brand guidelines, colors, typography, design components, UI code, voice and tone, and other reusable toolkits to build on. With design systems in place, everyone can understand, speak and share the same design language.
Today, design has become increasingly complex and multi-faceted. Businesses now depend on several key factors to ensure their branding remains competitive, meaningful, and visually rich. This is because, with time and technological advances, design has become more sophisticated and detailed than ever before.
How design systems can take businesses to the next level
Integrating a well-calibrated design system eliminates duplications, saves costs, and empowers confidence. It enables a seamless workflow that facilitates scalability and growth for your business in more than one way. Here are 10 compelling reasons to support that
- Makes processes fast
A good design requires several technical stages of cross-functional collaboration to reach an end product. A shared design language, resources, and guidelines empower teams to collaborate and make better decisions. This eventually helps their developing and testing work faster. - Boosts quality, consistency, and accessibility
Having a single source of truth, a library of tried and tested components, and patterns will improve the consistency, experience, and accessibility of your products. When you implement these practices, accessibility becomes part of every interaction. - Gives businesses long-term vision
Organizations with little to no design background can benefit from design systems. They empower businesses by giving them a long-term strategic vision about how their products can evolve and grow beyond their existing portfolio. - Saves time and money
A design system enables your teams to optimize workflows by:- Unifying your brand across all platforms
- Designing better at scale
- Ensuring smoother design-to-development handoff
- Alleviating communication
- Reducing collaboration challenges
- Speeding up production
- Stabilizes products
We’ve seen how the design systems can be a powerful socialization piece for stakeholder alignment at both a product team and executive level, helping ensure consistency, reduce friction, increase speed to market, and reduce product risk. - Produces better product experiences
With a strong design system in place, businesses can produce UX deliverables rooted in real-world scenarios. A well-documented design system helps engender human touch into the product. This not only enhances the product experience but also makes it marketable. - Builds brand image
By streamlining different processes efficiently, a design system ensures that the connection with the user is built to last. The elements in the system showcase branding from multiple points of contact. From digital signage to printed materials and advertisements, the end product remains consistent which stimulates trust and credibility. - Compliments HR
Design system also improves the administrative performance of the organization. It reduces the accumulative onboarding time involved for new hires by supplying them with a library of content to get acquainted with. It also reduces the overwhelming stress of starting a new job. - Improves engagement
Through a design system, developers can have a uniform view of the code which can significantly reduce duplication and other errors often part of the programming. When you have a consistent layout, customers tend to engage and interact with the product. - Improve Time to Market
By implementing a design system, you can eliminate the repetitive tasks for both teams and free up employees to work on innovative ideas to move a project forward. A set of reusable assets in a single library also reduces time spent by developers who previously would have had to code each asset for every project. This then leads to the ability to iterate and ship updates faster, which improves the overall time to market for organizations.
Case Study: Saved a failing project through a design system
When I was working on a recent project, my client noticed significant differences in the way certain elements had been designed. When the project was at its center, several inconsistencies had taken shape, which created breakages in the design flow. By auditing and organizing the design content, I found there wasn’t really a guideline for designers to start with. I also discovered that most designers were outsourced and used stock elements in their deliverables.
Solution
To fix this issue for good, I advised my client to develop a universal design system that can serve as a foundation – a common language for the organization. Aside from fixing the inconsistencies that resulted from its absence, its purpose was also extended to help reimagine future design initiatives. So, a new disciplined design system was built using existing data, the latest research, and external trends and factors that influenced product development. After the groundwork had been laid, its immediate implementation was ordered that bring the product to life.
Nothing is perfect
As a designer, setting up a design system can be a daunting task. It involves an in-depth understanding of how the components are unified and the ability to articulate and transfer that knowledge to the human counterparts involved in the process. Detailed, up-to-date, and easily accessible documentation plays a critical role in supplying that information to duty holders and preventing the misuse of system components.
However, it is also a fact that design systems can never be perfect. The process of developing, testing, and refining a design system has to be continuously practiced to stay relevant, up-to-date, and competitive. As your business grows, so do its needs, and building on to an old foundation will only leave it at risk of collapsing.
To make sure you have a robust and dynamic design system, make sure to keep up with technology and trends. Use release notes and regular presentations to keep the information floating across the organization. Building a strong framework and conducting feedback sessions is important to stay aligned with your objectives. Lastly, always use dedicated support channels. This will help you gather invaluable experience, which you can use to improve the design system.