A design system is an ever-evolving ecosystem of inputs and outputs — not just a set of components and colours, but a repository of guidelines and a way of thinking that helps guide our decisions. It is a source of truth for the whole company.
Enables system-thinking
This allows us to go from macro all the way down to micro. It provides designers and developers with tools to make cohesive, consistent, and smart decisions.
Coherence — is by making sure every part of your product feels like it belongs there, instead of trying to make them exactly the same.
Consistent — focuses on giving users similar and familiar responses across the whole system.
Smart — allows the teams to shift focus onto important parts of the system without being constrained by pixel problems.
The following analogy shows us how every pixel has a role within the greater view.
“The image on the right is likely the one that you’ll describe as that’s our human scale default experience. If we use these city images as a metaphor for different representations of the same problem, it’s systems-thinking that encourages us to embrace complexity and describe more than the street view, to see patterns mapped, cause and effect, relationships and rationalised systems.”
— Hayley Hughes, Nike Design Director
City planning
Imagine a world where all the signs and traffic lights were all different depending on which street you were on. It would be difficult to navigate, understand, and you might leave the city not knowing why you went there in the first place. A design system is similar to city planning.
Natural flow
We need to create a natural flow between products so our customers and our teams can easily and consistently build, navigate, and understand this flow between products and features. A design system helps companies scale consistently, move faster and build more opportunities with the customer in mind. This becomes a way to gain customer trust as we strive to create high-quality products.
e.g. “if this system reacts and functions consistently then I feel comfortable that I can understand the cause and effect of my actions. And if the system looks and feels good I’m more inclined to use it.”
Where is the value?
Increase speed to market
Teams can build features faster with pre-built components and this allows them to increase their velocity when trying to push features into the market.
Projects run smoother and are more focused
These prebuilt components are already tested, with most use-cases and edge cases figured out. This allows teams to focus on providing a great experience and value to users without having to waste time on foundation work. Similar to building something with lego. The lego pieces are the components. Teams just have to pick the ones that they need.
Iterating more quickly on features and live projects
Teams that use prebuilt patterns and components tend to spend less time iterating over the solution, and focus on problem-solving and delivering the best experience.
Improved communications between teams
Teams start to use the same language. They will talk about the same patterns and components without second-guessing or misinterpreting each other. They spend less time in meetings talking about the naming or meaning of things but more time on delivering value.
References
- All photos from https://unsplash.com/
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