What Is a Design System?
Design systems are a collection of resources that can be used and reused across multiple designs. In other words, a design system can include UI components – such as gauge charts, cards, toggles, drawers, and so on, variables and styles that can be changed according to your needs, and even documentation that can help you in your design process.
The Importance of a Design System
Speed
Designing (and developing) an app or a website takes time. And time is money. But because we can easily use the pre-made and ready-to-use UI components, it means that we, as UI/UX designers, don’t have to start from scratch each time. We can update components across our design with a few changes according to our needs, and we’re good to go.
What would have taken us 5 hours to create takes us 15 minutes (and a lot less stress). The time that was once dedicated to designing a single project can now be spent designing not just one but five projects.
Efficiency
According to this McKinsey report, for a 5-day work week, 9 hours are spent searching for and gathering information. This means that if we work for a week, then in 4 days, we put in the actual work, while a day is spent searching for answers, but you don’t contribute anything.
But with a design system, we automatically eliminate this dead time. Creating a component takes time—not only for designing but also for research and feedback. However, clearer guidelines mean less research and fewer rounds of feedback, which means fewer revisions. A design system also means fewer risks of error.
Brand Consistency
When multiple people are working on a project, it might be quite challenging to deliver a consistent brand experience. However, a design system can cover those details that we often overlook when designing individual components.
This is all about eliminating manual adjustments. Now, you don’t have to worry about manually updating each font or color across the entire design manually. The design system will do that for you. This way, every component adheres to the same style, creating a cohesive brand experience.
Collaboration
A design system is a shared language for everyone on our team. It creates a shared vocabulary for all designers (and others participating in the design process) to collaborate and communicate efficiently. There is no more guesswork, no more lost-in-translation moments, and no more misunderstood emails. Everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goal without letting frustration fester.
How Much Time Can We Save By Using Design Systems?
In 2019, Figma carried out an exciting experiment on different designers. This showed that designers who used a design system completed their work 34% faster than those who did not.
But that’s not only from a design point of view. We can also look at it from a tech perspective. According to a study published by ZeroHeight, design systems can save up to 37% of development time. That is quite a lot of time saved up just by adopting a design system for your app!
What should you look for?
You should look for a design system that includes all the required UI components in a library, styles, and variables, as well as a pattern library, icons, and visual elements, including color palettes and typography styles. That way, you will have all the required elements to design an end-to-end application.
