Design Systems — Storytelling & Perspective
There’s a tale about blind men encountering an elephant for the first time, each thinking it’s something different — a wall, snake, cow, carpet, rope.
They argue, all wrong, missing the big picture of an elephant.
( Wait wasn’t this a post about design systems.. yes — and we are almost there )
Let us stop the old elephant story and tell our own. I have an elephant I am proud off and like to show it and talk about it. Other elephant interested people loves to hear all about it. But lately I have presented to people more interested in animal feet and how they work and they just don’t care about the elephant tusk no matter how cool it is.
( … the design system part?)
Okay, I don’t have an elephant, but I help maintain a design system. Proud of it, I like to talk about it. Others into design systems enjoy hearing about it. But lately, I’ve talked to people more into cost & economy, caring little about design principles, no matter how cool they are.
Unlike elephants, for design systems, it’s better to present what’s relevant. It’s not rocket science; adjust your presentation to your audience. I might have forgotten that and explained token tiers to people who just needed to know we had a design system and why it mattered for them.
A design system often brings a culture change, systemizing decisions. This change can cause tension. So, it’s crucial to present it as an ally, not an enemy across the organization. My strategy is to give them a glimpse of the elephant for understanding, then dive deep into the part adding value in their everyday life. Create a story from their perspective on why the designs brings them value.
Designers
One of our direct stakeholders is our designers. Depending on their title and interests it ranges from UI, UX and service design. Some exaples on different stories.
- “With our design system we can use more time on product solving and less on developer handoffs.”
- “With our design system we can spend more time on component details since components is shared across projects.”
- “With our design we have a figma kit allowing for quick iterative user tests.”
Developers
Another of our direct stakeholders is our developers.
- “With our design system you guys can spend more time on developing new stuff instead of repliciting existing solutions across tech stacks.”
- “With our design system you can contribute and your work will benefit the whole organisation”
Product Owners
Figure out what matters for your product owners and tell a story that makes sense for them.
Leadership
The leadership is properly mostly intersted in money. So it can be the story about the designers or developers adjusted to focus on who the system enabled designers to free up time for research that resulted in higher sales.
Brand
Display to brand how a design system will help align the brand and provide a way to push brand changes across the organisation.
Security
Maybe you can even gain some allies in the security department, by having login patterns that is shared across the organisation.
