Gov.uk
https://design-system.service.gov.uk
Gov.uk is an excellent example of
government design. The design system
is comprised of styles, components and
patterns, all of which are fully WCAG
2.0-compatible.Lightning Design
System
https://lightningdesignsystem.com
The Lightning Design System enables
product teams to build rich enterprise
experiences and custom applications
with the consistent patterns and
established best practices that are
native to Salesforce.Material Design by
Google
https://material.io/design/
Material Design is a great example of
a design system that redefined the
industry. It introduced a brand new way
to produce your designs.Polaris by Shopify
https://polaris.shopify.com
Polaris design system is a set of
comprehensive guidelines and
principles that designers can use while
building apps and channels for Shopify.Atlassian Design
https://atlassian.design
Atlassian offers end-to-end design
language for creating straightforward
and beautiful experiences.it is a by-product of your product design
work. That’s why you need to develop
it through the lens of an actual working
product. You need to ensure that the
design system you’re going to build
will live in the technologies that your
products use.
As soon as you create a basic concept
for your design system, it’s important to
validate it. The best way to validate the
concept is to test it on a pilot project.
Select a sample real product and create
a design system that powers a real
solution. The project you select should
be used as a foundation for your future
design system, so you will be able to test
whether or not the system is working for
your organisation.
Here is a set of criteria you can use to
determine a pilot’s potential efficacy:O A project should have the potential for
common components and patterns.
It should contain components and
patterns that can be reused within
other products.
O It should have good technical
feasibility and not be hard to introduce
all the required changes.
O The project should be accomplishable
in a reasonable amount of time
(ideally, a couple of weeks) and
shouldn’t require the involvement
of many people from various
departments (maintaining
independence is essential).
O A project should have marketing
potential. The project should inspire
other teams to introduce design
systems in their design process.Create reusable components
One mistake that I see time and time
again is teams create components that
are too focused on a single-use case. As a
result, the system becomes too inflexible
and its users have to create their own
components each time they need to
cover a particular scenario.
Try to develop components that are
not tied to a single use case but can
be reused in multiple contexts. To be
reusable and scalable, components need
to have the following properties:O Modular: modular components are
self-contained – they don’t have any
dependencies.
O Composable: it’s possible to
combine components to create new
components.
O Customisable: it’s possible to adjust
and extend components to make them
work in a variety of contexts.Every time team members want to
introduce a new component, they need
to consider how it will work on the
various platforms they are designing for.
Ideally, every component they design
should work on all platforms.Show value through a sandbox
environment
It’s well known that the best way for
people to see value is to experience it.
So create a sandbox environment for
product team members to prototype
products using your design system.Some product teams believe that once
a design system is built, the work is
complete. Not true. A design system is
a product and it’s vital to manage it as
a product instead of a project – a design
system requires ongoing maintenance
and improvements as needs arise.Encourage adoption of your
design system
The same as any other product, a design
system needs active users. You can
create the best design system in the
world but, if you don’t actively promote
it in your organisation, the entire effort
will suffer greatly. That’s why, from the
first release of your system, you need to
work hard to foster its adoption:O Create a community of supporters. Put
together a group of evangelists, led by
authoritative influencers or designers,
who will pitch and sell ideas about
your design system. The evangelists
should participate in activities like
workshops and meetups that have
a goal of raising awareness that the
system exists and educating people on
how to use it.FEATURES
Build a perfect design system