Getting started with a Design System
Reflection is a massive part of learning, so as I start to learn about Design Systems in a very practical way I am taking on the task of documenting as many of the activities relating to the development of a design system as possible. Documenting this in a public forum has no major benefits other than the idea that sharing may be of use to others. Also knowing others may read this ensures I put in a small bit of effort that I otherwise wouldn’t if it was just a personal document and that in itself is a cathartic exercise.
The main intention here is to document so my team and I can reflect over time and it may also be useful for others in a similar situation.
Some context.
I work in a small digital team in a large company in the finance sector in Ireland. The company is multi-channel and my team is dedicated to serving the needs of our B2B partners. I work in a dedicated sales division and it is not an overtly technical environment but it is a good environment to work. My background is that I have been working as a frontend web developer for a decade but more recently I’m acting in a more Product Management capacity. I have a team comprising of a frontend developer, UX designer and a CRM specialist. They’re a great team.
Why a Design System?
The main attraction to me for investing time in developing a design system is to allow my team and me to focus on our jobs. All too often in any phase of developing any digital item the conversation turns to the “look and feel”. Everyone has an opinion, and that’s fine, but it’s very hard to keep having the same conversations about a button or an icon or a border and to keep motivated and deliver. There are of course other reasons that are consistent with why many digital teams start a design system, but wasted time and demotivating conversations just aren’t my bag. They’re as good a reason as any.
We need a process to abstract design from these discussions.
We want to bring a design thinking approach to our jobs, to put the human users at the centre of our projects. To do this we need our subject matter experts to be focused on the problems and not the solutions.
Limitations
As a small team we are busy with a lot of different task and projects. Dedicating a lot of time is going to be hard so we need to find a way to develop a system that works for us.
Where we started
Reading and discussing.
There are a number of books and loads of articles online about how to get started on a design system. We knew we weren’t going to be able to start a design system overnight or even be in a position to invest time for a few months. We took this time to read books, watch videos and to discuss within the team and with others in a similar mindset around the business.
The first book my colleague shared with me that gave me a proper understanding of a design system was ‘Design Systems — A practical guide to creating design language for digital products’ by Alla Kholmatova. This is a smashing magazine publication.
When me and the team are a little further into this whole process we will share more practical actions we took from this book and give our reflections.
What we used as a starting point was the ‘Creating a Design System: The 100-Point Process Checklist from UXPin’
So we start.
So today was the day when we started for real and began to do an inventory of our digital patterns, icons, typography etc.
I’ll write about that next.
