it (design principles should always be
actionable). Design principles act as
standards for the product team and help
them to measure their work.Here are a few things to
remember when working on
design principles:
O Design principles should reflect the
nature of the product. For example,
when it comes to human-machine
interface design for automobiles,
the most important design principle
should be ‘Safety first’ (the goal is to
keep the driver and passengers safe).
That’s why every design decision
should be measured for safety.
O Design principles should not sound
like rules. They shouldn’t block
creative energy. Product creators
should not feel limited or restrained.
O Design principles should be the result
of an open discussion. In many cases,
it’s not hard to make people follow
guidelines but rather it’s hard to make
people agree on guidelines. If an
organisation has many design teams,
then involving them in a discussion is
vital. By getting their feedback on the
design principles, you can adapt the
principles to the needs of users.Review the technology stack
and conduct an interface
inventory
Many companies tend to build a design
system on top of the current interface
but this approach is not the best for
many reasons. Imagine that your
company has been building a product
for a long time without a system.
The product likely has some level of
inconsistency in design. Inconsistency
is usually caused by the duplication of
design elements. Identifying duplication
of design elements helps a team to avoid
the scenario in which team members
build an element from scratch and, after
a while, find out that a version of it
already exists.
That’s why if you plan to introduce
a design system, start with an audit- conduct an interface inventory
(https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/interface-
inventory/) to understand what’s in use.
Explore existing interactions, collect
all of the UI elements that make up
the interface and review them. It’s
important to do this before building
the actual design system because the
procedure will help you to understand
two things:O How much design debt your
organisation has and what are the
areas that require more attention.
O The reasons for inconsistency and
the changes you need to introduce in
the design process in order to avoid
such problems in the future. Maybe
you will need to change the process
or perhaps you will need to introduce
new technology.Establish a core team
Who should be involved in building a
design system? Design is a team sport
and creating a design system is no
exception. The expertise and creative
energy provided by cross-functional
collaboration are required to build a
design system. That’s why the core team
of people that actually creates a system
usually includes engineers, designers,
product managers and stakeholders.
When you start building a design system,
it’s crucial to have a small size for the
core team (six to eight people) because it
will help you to create momentum and
build something quickly.Consider implementing a design system
as a project. And just like any other
project, this one should have a solid
process with the following steps:O Sell the idea
O Complete a pilot project
O Design and build
O Launch and maintenanceSelling the idea of a design system is the
first and most crucial step in introducing
a design system. Usually, it’s hard to sell
design systems due to the trade-offs- both management and product team
members understand that resources
spent on building a design system aren’t
being spent on shipping features. So
it’s natural to expect some pushback. In
order to sell a design system, you need to
do two things:
Get buy-in from stakeholders
A design system won’t take off if the
people who decide on funding don’t
approve it. It’s much easier to get the
buy-in from executives when you show
that the system solves real business
problems. Identify key business pain
points (areas where the company loses
money) and show how the design system
can save the day. Write a strategy withFEATURES
Build a perfect design system