7 of the best design systems to gain inspiration from
If you’re tasked with creating clear user interfaces, design systems are a good starting point and reference for any stage of the design process. A successful design system can educate team members, streamline work, and empower designers to solve complex UX problems.
Reasons for a company to have a design system
Design systems are crucial in the world of UX design. They help companies structure their design workflow, collaborate design decisions between product team members, and craft reusable and consistent design elements. Let’s discuss three key benefits a company can gain from a design system.
1. To speed up the design process
When a company has a design system, designers do not waste time solving design challenges that other designers have already solved. It enables quick updating of user interfaces and reduces time spent on the research required when creating new elements.
Increased development speed helps companies implement design decisions faster to become leaders in their industry. The other advantage of having a design system is that it speeds up the onboarding process for the new team members, which means the company saves time and money.
2. To provide more consistency for users
Consistency helps to make products user friendly, and any design system standardizes patterns across products and channels. When a user interacts with your interface, they see design elements, and they will look for the same patterns across other platforms.
Reusing the same patterns and components can reduce users’ mental overload and make their experience more enjoyable. Better user experience leads to user loyalty and better conversion.
3. To improve cross-functional collaboration
A design system helps UX teams and personnel share experiences within the product team. Firstly, it is a perfect reference for junior-level designers, and secondly, it is an important guideline for developers or product managers. Setting up a design system helps any member of the team to refer to necessary rules or components any time they need them.
Benefits of the design system for UX designers
While some designers may worry about using a design system because they think it would limit their creativity, others believe a design system can add to important designer skill sets.
Many great companies decided to keep their design systems open to the public, and these systems help creatives advance their skills. Successful design systems include guidelines, tools, and tutorials that can guide any designer, especially with limited design experience, to solve UX design problems properly.
As we talk about learning from a design system, it’s helpful to remember that you can look to the design systems of top companies to study the patterns they use in their products and to see their design solutions.
For example, if you, as a designer, have no experience in ecommerce, Shopify’s design system Polaris might be extremely helpful to study solutions for merchants:
You don’t need to reinvent solutions that were already made by one of the most successful ecommerce platforms; it’s better to study from the leaders of the industry and have more time for research or other crucial UX challenges.
What are the components of a design system?
Each design system is unique. The specific components included in a design system will depend on the company’s goals and the needs of the product team. In a nutshell, it’s a great knowledge base that includes a UI kit, documents, guidelines, and even more to make a company’s design standard across platforms and enable teams to build better products faster. Let’s go through the essential elements of the design system.
- Principles and values
- Component library
- Pattern library
- Brand style guides
- Writing guidelines
- Accessibility guidelines
- Tools and resources
7 of the best design systems to gain inspiration from
Great design systems significantly help UX Designers craft and implement better user interfaces and user friendly experiences. You can gain inspiration from the best design systems by studying their components, patterns, and layouts.
Besides, you can use them as a guide to create a product in a particular field. Here is a brief overview of the 7 best design systems each designer should know.
Shopify’s design system Polaris
Microsoft’s Fluent design system
Salesforce Lightning design system
Conclusion
Design systems are great resources to inspire UX designers and help them to build their products with a unified look and feel. They provide professionals with all the necessary tools and guidelines to create successful UX experiences across different platforms and devices, including desktop computers, and mobile phones.
A lot of these design systems are lauded for their clear guidelines and consistency — we designers could all learn something from them. Hopefully you’ve found one in this article that can inform your design decisions moving forward.
