Written by Cherilyn Sathorn 2022 Cohort
As digital products have rapidly developed over the years, the scale of user interface design work has also increased. Many companies find a way to boost their design work process to improve their system and gain more income. Consequently, they switched to using design systems on their products.
What is a design system?
A Design System is a complete set of standards and reusable components that can be assembled to build any number of applications.
Why design system is essential?
A design system can have a lot of positive impacts on a design team:
Collaboration
The central part of a product designer’s workflow is collaborating with people, especially developers. As they work very close, they might have different opinions when they discuss features, brainstorm ideas, and provide feedback on prototypes together. To avoid miscommunications, both of them should use the same standard. Using a design system that is a unified language will let them perfectly understand each other and make effective communication in a company.
Consistency
In general, digital products are designed to use on several platforms, such as responsive websites and mobile applications. A design system can help designers and teams reduce the need to reinvent new elements as they can continue to use the same thing repeatedly. It can help them create the same visual appearance to show the identity of each organization or each project by using these elements.
Scalability
When all team members can access the same information, they will quickly understand one another on ‘What do they think?’ or ‘Why do they do it like this?’ while they work together as they receive the same messages. A design system works the same way. It is a good reference and educational tool for junior-level designers to understand their new responsibilities as UI designers. They can learn quickly and streamline communication by following a guideline and exploring the design system of a new project. A senior doesn’t need to spend time training them so much.
In conclusion, a design system is an amazingly useful tool. By using it, teams can reduce wasted design or development time, designers can share the same visual elements, and junior designers can use it as a guideline.