Why do we work with Design System?

Jean Oliveira
November 30, 2023

Learn how to use your design system and develop the best digital marketing tools for your customers.

What is a design system?

The role of the design system is to help designers and developers build digital products. This article will focus on why you should use a design system for your projects.

A Design System is a set of tools and guidelines that facilitate the design process. Designers can use these elements to make their own products, or developers may build on top of them with ease in mind because they have been designed together!

Design System is a list of components and styles used for products and describes the process to implement them. While design systems can sometimes be confused with styles and pattern books, design systems can be more strategically focused.

Pattern libraries or style guides can be considered part of a design system! Design systems may extend into other touchpoints that the product carries outside of them.

For example, a design-oriented system may filter and use design system elements by others to create something they could otherwise not.

The fundamental purpose behind creating one is so everyone has access- whether you're just starting out as someone new joining the team from another department or an experienced individual looking at changing career paths.

It also allows companies working across multiple industries domestically and internationally to collaborate more efficiently by sharing common standards.

Images from the Joyjet Design System documentation

How we've developed design systems

Our work is extremely important for designers. Design System Development provides businesses with the ability to find more information about the product development process by looking at the design process in a simple, efficient manner.

For each of our design systems projects, we ensure that internal teams listen to their knowledge and learn how they can use design systems to improve the design process.

In essence, we worked on in-house development teams because the clients were our customer base.

If it's not updated, it's not worth having

It is possible that the product you develop will not always function exactly as it was designed to look or operate. This explains the importance of knowing the processes by which a development system will get updated regularly. Maintaining design systems is a significant challenge.

Often the largest companies have an engineering role devoted solely to designing systems and software support. Design systems are alive and can change as new changes occur in a business or product, so you should make these changes regularly.

The benefits of creating a design system for your company

By using a design system, the business is significantly improved through the use of the latest design system, improved teamwork, and discipline skills. 

One of the main benefits of system design is the reduction of communication problems between designers and programmers and the minimization of potential UX design bugs. It also helps reduce the time required to convert a prototype into a real product. 

Among other advice, we can highlight:

Conduct a visual audit

Conducting a visual audit is the first step in building a design system. This involves taking inventory of the CSS you're using and the visual qualities of the elements. 

Doing this will help you gauge how much work will be involved in creating the design system. By taking the time to do a thorough audit, you'll be able to create a design system that meets the needs of your team and helps to streamline the design process.

Create a visual design language

The visual design language is the core of a design system. It’s made up of the discernible components that you’ll use to construct your digital product. 

Your visual design language is made up of four main categories, and you should consider the role each of these design elements plays in every component on the screen. The four categories are typography, color, layout, and iconography. 

Each of these design elements plays an important role in creating a cohesive and visually appealing product. When creating your visual design language, it’s important to consider how each element will work together to create a unified design system.

Design System called Fluent, for Microsoft products

Why do companies create design systems?

All employees in product groups within an organization (e.g. engineers and product managers) gather and discuss every element of their existing Digital Product Asset. 

Then they join the design team to create their ultimate plan.This means that every team has one source of data containing visual information, a unified source of data.

The use and implementation of design systems

When implementing a reusable product or system a developer can avoid using multiple code snippets and just paste them into a reusable component or library.

A designer can quickly and easily create an existing landing page by adding standard elements like colors, logos, headers and footnotes to a template.

A web-marketer does not need to repeat a few different newsletter formats to create an optimal template.

What can we learn from design systems?

Most design schemes follow relatively simple setups. The system usually offers its top navigation in categories such as development, code, languages, and components.

Each category contains specialized subcategories that detail things to maximize atomic design structures.

Those types of categories may include type, colors, forms, and banners. It provides valuable knowledge of best practices in design by introducing intuitive navigational methods and tools.

What's in it for other people and brands?

Many design companies host design software publicly on the Web so that others may learn and use the system as examples for their own design. 

Shopify’s design system is publicly available online. It means anyone looking to create an eCommerce website is 100% sure that their design is perfect. We're looking for the most interesting design system ideas you could learn from and steal from at the very least.

Design system examples

Shopify's design system

Currently the Shopify design framework is called Polaris. The system reflects the global presence of Shopify. The main thing is its flexibility. Shopify's design is carefully designed to focus solely on merchant experiences.

Shopify is proving a valuable asset as an enterprise solution for managing global complexities. Accessibility has an important place with Polaris.

Scaling a business is like climbing mountains, and designers aim to give users a sense that they're capable of challenging.

Atlassian's design system

Atlassian's design system focuses on personality in connecting tooling with human beings. This is a personal and peppy product that makes a bold branding statement.

The colors that have appeared on secondary brand palettes have also included "dragon blood," "cheezy blasts," "hair fairy," "herky jerky," and "Sodium explosion."

Accessibility is important for Atlassian and its design follows standard contrast ratios that make it easy for people who are visually impaired view the product and utilize the software. Atlassian is a positive company that emphasizes humanism rather than humor in its approach.

Google Material Design System

Material Design System Doc

Google is one of the largest technology companies along with Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. Google is primarily focused on Internet service providers and software.

Google created an open material design system that reveals all the smallest details.

The UXPin Material Design component can be easily used by any user as this component is part of the UXPin library.

The software allows users to obtain valuable information unified by device platforms or interfaces accessed by a number of input methods.

IBM Carbon Design System

IBM serves large enterprises worldwide with IT services that meet the IT demands of the industry.

They can offer business consultancy and financial software development services and hosting services, as well as IT services.

IBM believes in advancing humanity through scientific reasoning and intelligence. Moreover, IBM says that good designs are necessary for the user.

It provides many tools and visual resources that Adobe, Axure, and Sketch designers as well as developers can use for their projects.

Salesforce Lightning Design System

Salesforce provides an integrated CRM platform with an individualized user interface. It helps to improve marketing, commerce, IT support and sales activities, allowing customers to make similar decisions with their users.

Their design philosophy has four core values that guide their corporate actions and their culture.

However, Salesforce has launched its own Lightning Design System that lets users learn and enjoy its main features.

Uber Design System

Uber says movement creates opportunities. Uber operates through ride-sharing and other social services involving cars, scooters and electric bicycles.

Uber requires that it develop its designs and product lines in an efficient manner and that it shares its design with the rest of the industry.

Tell me the best way to build a design system?

Before you begin designing your project, take the time to think about the team that will be needed to develop the system. What is the reason for their participation?

For an easy way to get started with designing systems...

A comprehensive guide to design systems

Airbnb has redesigned its digital products by introducing its very own unique system. The company uses standardized repeatable components to change the pace of development and innovation within its teams.

Typically, these consist only of a collection of elements and code snippets in some organizations. Although the following style guides or pattern libraries provide an initial point in designing the system, these are not the only parts.