It’s impossible to build an effective design system
without introducing a few valuable tools in the
existing ecosystem. Below are some of the most
popular and most promising tools:InVision DSM
https://www.invisionapp.com/design-system-
manager
O InVision Design System Manager (DSM) is a
platform that helps teams create, maintain and
evolve a powerful design system. The DSM platform
includes a Sketch tool, a web view and a set of APIs.
DSM provides component search, version history
management and a semi-automatically generated
style guide.Adobe XD
https://www.adobe.com/products/xd.html
O Adobe XD is a vector-based user experience design
tool for web apps and mobile apps. The tool supports
linked assets, which enable you to easily share and
consume not only components but also colours and
character styles. This is handy if you or your team
members reuse design elements across projects.Sketch Libraries
https://www.sketch.com/docs/libraries/
O Sketch Libraries is a part of Sketch – a vector-
based design tool focused on user interface design. A
library is a Sketch document that contains symbols,
text styles and layer styles, which you can then use
in any other Sketch document. If you update any of
the symbols or styles in your library file, documents
containing instances of those symbols will receive a
notification that they can be updated.Storybook
https://storybook.js.org
O Storybook is an open-source tool for developing UI
components in isolation for React, Vue and Angular.
It enables you to browse a component library, view
the different states of each component, develop and
test components.Abstract
https://www.abstract.com
O Abstract brings Git-inspired version control and
collaboration to design teams. With this tool, it’s
much easier to centralise design decisions, feedback
and files.a clear proposal and pitch it to the key
people who make the decisions.
It’s recommended you create a
presentation (or series of presentations)
to convince stakeholders to invest in this
project. You can wrap your presentation
in the form of a story. By telling success
stories, you will have a better chance of
engaging stakeholders.
Get support from your users
Getting buy-in from stakeholders is only
half the battle. You need to get support
from your potential users. First, you
need to identify your target audience.
Who will use your design system and
how will they use it? Here are a few
common groups of users:
O Product teams (ie designers,
developers)
O Third parties (ie vendors)
O Business (ie marketing, sales, legal)
You will need to identify the pain points
of different groups of users and show the
value that the system will bring to them.
Each group of users has different buying
triggers – reasons why they would want
to use a design system. For example,
for developers, the trigger can be more
consistency in implementation methods
or spending less time refactoring code.
When it comes to building a design
system, it’s vital to understand that
Below One of the design principles of
Medium is ‘direction over choice’. This
principle helps Medium’s design team limit
the number of visual stylesAbove A perfect moment to work on a pilot
project is a time when you almost finished
planning but haven’t started building things.
Image: Dan Mall (https://netm.ag/2QWVD9D)Build a perfect design system