Design Systems

Design system is a collaborative way of working over silos and schedules. It is about learning together, and a platform for people in product teams with deadlines being able to help each other. The design system artefacts - components, documentation and design kits - are the crystallized organization memory and keeps learning and remembers. The patterns and documntation forms a design language, that let's developers and designers communicate together better - often even without knowing about each other.

Design system is process that lets teams gradually improve consistency, efficiency and user experiences, and fight over accumulation of changes, hacks and entropy. Design system is ready to be used in a project from day 1, but never done.

Design system is more than collection of components and code. It is the team memory - collection of best practices, ways of working and lessons learned. Complex, social system learn by pace layering - by lifting things to remember to a layer that moves in slower pace than the layer that changes fast. The fast-moving layer is the product or project level. The lessons to be learned and shared are lifted to slower-moving layer.

The problem design system solve is [1]collaboration. How do teams work together? How do external contractors do on-brand marketing sites? How can a developer do design-decisions without needing pixel specs for everything.

Design system component QA

  1. collaboration ↩︎

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  • Notes on Design

    “Design is the intentional solution to a problem within a set of constraints.” – Mike Monteiro

    Design reserach is about observing the problem from all points of views, without a solution in mind.

    Shut

Notes tagged design systems