Building Design Systems

Book excerpt: Learn how to build a design system framed within the context of your specific business needs. This book guides you through the process of defining a design language that can be understood across teams, while also establishing communication strategies for how to sell your system to key stakeholders and other contributors. With a defined set of components and guidelines, designers can focus their efforts on solving user needs rather than recreating elements and reinventing solutions. You'll learn how to use an interface inventory to surface inconsistencies and inefficient solutions, as well as how to establish a component library by documenting existing patterns and creating new ones. You'll also see how the creation of self-documenting styles and components will streamline your UX process. Building Design Systems provides critical insights into how to set up a design system within your organization, measure the effectiveness of that system, and maintain it over time. You will develop the skills needed to approach your design process systematically, ensuring that your design system achieves the purpose of your organization, your product, and your team. What You'll Learn Develop communication strategies necessary to gain buy-in from key stakeholders and other teams Establish principles based on your specific needs Design, build, implement, and maintain a design system from the ground up Measure the effectiveness of your system over time Who This Book Is For All teams, large and small, seeking to unify their design language through a cohesive design system and create buy-in for design thinking within their organization; UX, visual, and interaction designers, as well as product managers and front-end developers will benefit from a systematic approach to design.