- What is a Design System?
- Popular Design Systems 🌟
- Design System Pillars 🔑
- Importance of Having a Design System 🛠️
- Drawbacks of Building a Design System 🕒
- Design System Team Structure 🏢
- Building Your Own Design System 🏗️
- Design and Development Checklist for Components ✅
- Avoiding Design System Mistakes 🚫
A design system is a collection of reusable components, guidelines, and principles that define how a product or brand should look and behave. It serves as a centralized source of truth for design decisions, ensuring consistency and efficiency throughout the development process.
- Concept: UI built from small, basic parts that combine to form larger structures
- Hierarchy:
- Atoms: Basic building blocks (e.g., buttons, input fields)
- Molecules: Simple groups of UI elements (e.g., search bar with button)
- Organisms: Complex UI components (e.g., header with navigation)
- Templates: Page-level structures
- Pages: Specific instances of templates
- Purpose: Serves as a rulebook for visual consistency
- Includes:
- Color palettes
- Typography guidelines
- Spacing and layout rules
- Iconography standards
- Voice and tone guidelines
- Definition: A collection of reusable UI elements
- Examples:
- Buttons
- Form elements
- Navigation menus
- Cards
- Modals
- Definition: A collection of reusable UI patterns
- Examples:
A Pattern Library is a collection of reusable design solutions and best practices for creating user interfaces. It includes:
- Common UI components and their usage guidelines
- Examples of how components interact and behave
- Responsive design principles
- Accessibility recommendations
- Code samples for developers
- Design dos and don'ts
Examples include form layouts, data tables, navigation menus, and error messages.
Benefits:
- Ensures consistency across products
- Speeds up design and development
- Improves usability and accessibility
- Enhances team communication
- Google — Material Design System: Known for its clean look and detailed guidelines.
- Atlassian Design System: Promotes collaboration and consistency.
- Microsoft — Fluent Design System: Focuses on light, depth, motion, and more.
- IBM Carbon Design System: Built for data-heavy applications.
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Guides iOS app design.
- Airbnb Design System: Used for creating beautiful, functional UI.
- Uber Design System: Ensures their brand identity is reflected in all their apps.
- Color Palettes: Primary (e.g., brand blue), secondary (e.g., accent orange), and neutral colors (e.g., grays for text and backgrounds).
- Typography: Font families (e.g., Roboto for headings, Open Sans for body text), sizes (e.g., 16px base font size), weights (e.g., 400 for regular, 700 for bold), and styles.
- Icons: Consistent set of icons (e.g., outlined style for secondary actions, filled for primary actions).
- Components: Buttons (e.g., primary, secondary, tertiary styles), forms (e.g., input fields, dropdowns), modals (e.g., confirmation dialogs, full-screen overlays).
- Layout Grids: Structure for spacing and alignment (e.g., 8px grid system for consistent spacing).
- Tools: Figma/Sketch for design collaboration (e.g., shared component libraries, design templates).
- Frameworks: React (e.g., reusable button components), Angular (e.g., custom form controls), Vue components (e.g., modular card layouts).
- Styled Components: Consistent styling (e.g., theme-based styling for dark/light modes).
- Testing: Ensures components work correctly (e.g., accessibility tests, cross-browser compatibility checks).
- Documentation: Usage guidelines and examples (e.g., when to use a dropdown vs. radio buttons).
- Storybook: Develop and test components (e.g., interactive component playground).
- Gatsby.js: Build and deploy style guides (e.g., searchable documentation site).
- Ensure proper contrast
- Example: WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for text readability
- Make interface accessible by keyboards
- Example: Proper tab order for form elements
- Ensure important alerts are detected
- Example: Proper ARIA labels for interactive elements
- Products look and feel consistent
- Example: Google Drive, Maps, and Gmail sharing common UI elements
- Reflects company brand across platforms
- Example: Spotify's consistent use of green across all platforms
- Allows phased rollout of changes
- Example: Rolling out a new button style across multiple products
- Streamlines update process
- Example: Notifying all teams about a color palette change
- Easy access for new developers
- Example: Comprehensive wiki or documentation site
- Familiarity across different teams
- Example: Designers from different products understanding common patterns
- Enables quick prototyping with UI kit
- Example: Assembling a new feature mockup in hours instead of days
- Speeds up component development
- Example: Using pre-built form elements to create a complex checkout process
- Significant long-term commitment
- Example: Airbnb's design system evolution over 5+ years
- Needs dedicated cross-functional team
- Typically includes:
- Designers
- Engineers
- Product managers
- Example: Dedicated design system team of 5-10 people
- Must evolve alongside products
- Requires constant improvement
- Example: Material Design's major versions over the years
- Regular updates and improvements needed
- Example: Quarterly audits and updates to the component library
- Ensuring widespread adoption across teams
- Example: Creating migration plans for legacy products
- Definition: A single, dedicated team responsible for the entire design system.
- Advantages:
- Ensures consistency and quality
- Typically speeds up development
- Drawbacks:
- Other teams might feel they don't have enough control or input
- Definition: Multiple teams contribute to the design system.
- Advantages:
- Increases ownership and innovation as different teams contribute
- Drawbacks:
- Can lead to inconsistencies across the system
- Definition: Combines aspects of both centralized and distributed models.
- Advantages:
- Combines the best of both centralized and distributed teams
- Drawbacks:
- Requires more coordination and management to ensure success
- Mix of roles:
- Designers
- Engineers
- Product Managers
- Example for a small team:
- 2 Designers
- 3 Engineers
- 1 Product Manager
- Essential for success
- Examples:
- Weekly show-and-tell sessions
- Shared Slack channels
- Crucial for understanding and usage
- Examples:
- Onboarding workshops
- Video tutorials
- Ensures proper evolution of the system
- Examples:
- Design review boards
- Contribution guidelines
- Originality: Reflects your brand's identity (e.g., Mailchimp's playful illustrations and tone).
- Open Source Sharing: Encourages contributions and inspires others (e.g., IBM's Carbon Design System on GitHub).
- Understand Your Brand: Deep knowledge of brand values (e.g., conducting brand workshops, user research).
- Create a Design Language: Define visual elements (e.g., mood boards, style tiles).
- Establish a Foundation: Guidelines for layout, spacing, typography (e.g., creating a modular scale for type and spacing).
- Figma: Design components (e.g., creating a shared component library).
- Vue, React, Angular: Develop reusable components (e.g., building a custom date picker).
- Gatsby: Build static sites (e.g., creating a documentation website).
- Storybook: Showcase and test components (e.g., interactive component explorer).
- Accessibility: Usable by all users (e.g., color-blind friendly palettes).
- Interactions: Define possible interactions (e.g., hover states, animations).
- Context: Where and how to use the component (e.g., primary buttons for main actions only).
- States: Define hover, clicked, disabled, etc. (e.g., visual feedback for form validation).
- Content: Ensure alignment with brand (e.g., microcopy guidelines for error messages).
- Customization: Parameter effects (e.g., how changing a prop affects the component's appearance).
- Responsiveness: Adapt to different screen sizes (e.g., collapsible navigation for mobile).
- Accessibility: Use semantic HTML, keyboard navigation (e.g., proper use of ARIA attributes).
- Responsiveness: Ensure proper behavior (e.g., fluid typography, flexible layouts).
- Customization: Implement properties (e.g., theme-able components using CSS variables).
- Functionality: Test behavior and errors (e.g., unit tests for edge cases).
- Type Checking: Validate props and dependencies (e.g., using TypeScript or PropTypes).
- Browser Compatibility: Consider polyfills (e.g., supporting flexbox in older browsers).
-
Start Small 🐣:
- Focus on essential components first. Don’t try to build everything at once.
- Iterate and Expand: Gradually add more components and features over time.
-
Show, Don’t Tell 🧩:
- Develop tangible examples or working prototypes.
- Involve others early in the process to gather feedback and ideas.
-
Document Your Decisions 🗂️:
- Keep detailed documentation of design decisions and guidelines.
- Use version control to track changes to the design system.
- Ensure the latest documentation is accessible to all team members.
By following these practices and applying them to your specific context, you can confidently build a robust design system that upholds your brand and ensures seamless design and development processes. Remember, the key is to start small, involve your team, and continuously iterate based on real-world usage and feedback. 🌟