The Art of Design Systems
The Art of Design systems
Design system has been playing a key role for designers as it helps them collaborate with teams and also designers like them.
A Design System is the single source of truth which groups all the elements that will allow the teams to design, realise and develop a product.
A design system is a library of reusable components and guidelines that people within a company can combine into interfaces and interactions. What goes into a design system and how it is implemented can vary quite a bit from company to company, depending on the size and maturity of the design practice and the needs of the product team.
Design systems help teams work in a more unified way, with components, assets, a code repository, and guidelines all located in one place.
With the help of design systems, a designer can quickly mock up a series of prototypes with ready-made UI components. A programmer can copy and paste a pre-tested code snippet to the page they’re working on. A marketer can easily find content guidelines and brand imagery to craft their email. When these efforts are combined, they result in a consistent brand identity and cohesive experience for the end customer.
When creating a design system, a lot of components are being considered before defining it.
These includes;
1. Overview: This section provides an overview of the design system, which is particularly important for more complex systems. It can mention the new updates to the system, or a list of principles and shared values that define what good design means for the organization.
2. Components: This is a library of reusable UI elements, expressed both visually and via code. The UI components are typically crafted to work together, through a combination of user research, performance testing, and accessibility evaluation. Components are typically accompanied by a set of guidelines or rationale around how and when they should be used.
3. Patterns. This is a library of reusable component combinations. Patterns represent best practices for arranging the components together to help solve common user needs.
4. Resources. This section can include a range of tools, plug-ins, UI kits, articles, and video tutorials that support the entire creation process.
5. Brand guidelines: Some design systems include brand guidelines, which outline brand values, personality, a brand promise, or a showcase of the brand out in the world.
Here are 10 Most popular design systems used today.
- Google Material Design: It is a treasure chest for simple, elegant design patterns and style guides. Developed by Google.
2. Atlassian Design System: Atlassian Design System focuses on providing valuable assistance to teams from all over the world by making their collaboration seamless and easy. Atlassian Design Guidelines are also a part of UXPin’s library collection.
Atlassian design philosophy is all about utilising the digital experience to improve the productivity and overall potential of teams and individual team members, perfectly reflected in their globally used collaboration tools Trello and Jira.
3. Uber Design System: According to Uber, movement ignites opportunity. After all, Uber service bases on movement with ride-hailing, peer-to-peer ride-sharing, food delivery and micro-mobility involving scooters and electric bikes. For this type of service to work impeccably, from sub-brands to internal ones and products to programs, Uber requires an effective design system that the company shares with the rest of the world.
4. IBM carbon Design System: IBM operates on a global scale by meeting large enterprise IT needs. Their services range from business consulting and financing, software development and IT hosting/management to software-to-hardware products. IBM’s core belief revolves around making constant progress, be that human condition, society or a brand, by utilizing science, reason and intelligence.
5. MailChimp Design System: Mailchimp has come a long way from being a renowned email marketing leader to providing an all-in-one marketing platform that goes beyond email only. Mailchimp has one clear goal: to help small businesses grow while remaining true to their brand identity and image.
Conclusion
Since design systems are made to help brands, companies and organisation scale their design and also development, It is good to note that it is a never ending development as it might be updated as trends changes.
There is also a huge room for upgrade and development.
