[5min read][Part 1/3] Figma Config 2024: Design systems best practices
Ana Boyer, Alexia Danton & Chad Bergman (Designer Advocate Figma) will tell us more about design system best practices. It is a 3 part article, don’t hesitate to check the end of the article or my profile for more details.
TLDR;
This first part deals with Design System (DS) principles. Be cautious your DS be grounded with priorities (being faster for devs, consistency, …). Be careful also to collaborate with engineers, business, … to validate before publishing some changes.
The conf;
The top subjects of this conference:
This long conference will be divided into several articles. Hope that it will make it simpler to understand :)
- Principles for working with design systems in Figma (This article)
- Insights gathered from the design system community (Medium article part 2)
- Figma best practices and features (Medium article part 3)
Different Design system maturity, so different needs and challenges.
So 3 principles for working with DS in Figma
1. Approach complexity with caution
When design team includes too much complexity at start. Problem is you are going to create a more rigid Design system. You are also going to spend a lot of time and resources for maintenance.
For example, a component with a ton of use case
It’s hard to understand when and where to use this complex component.
In definitive it depends on your organization. But the more complex, the less value it will bring.
It’s simple to add, its super complicated to remove component from your design system. It’s a lot harder to make changes the more you add to it.
2. Always be grounded in priorities
Priorities aligned with your organization.
It depends from one organization to another organization. Maybe it is consistency, maybe it is efficiency…
Your design system priorities will evolve over time. It’s important to review them from time to time.
For that, you can use a prioritization matrix
3. Validation before execution
Planning the changes and then validate before committing to it.
An iterative process to have the best solution for your design system. It will help avoid a rollback (that could cause a loss in DS trust).
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Sources
If you want more resources on this topic;
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJTCfSFLUGE
Part 2: (Medium article Part 2)
Part 3: (Medium article Part 3)
Full side notes from this conference: (to be published)
Figma resources: https://www.figma.com/community/file/1389734809448723368/config-2024-design-systems-best-practices-resources
