Why does your company need a design system? Thats a very good question which can be answered by this statement:
“A design system helps to implement a strong brand by employing a consistent look and feel”
A design system is an investment which is usually developed from live style guides that have been produced by marketing or design teams. These guides will form the basis of the system and will produce a uniform look and feel for a company’s digital products.
A design system can be further refined to appeal to specific B2B and B2C audiences and even further to different product lines and sub brands. Using Figma for design system creation gives alot of flexibility for design teams who can use shared library features to control design components.
Design patterns can be built out to give a familiar customer experience for the end-user. Design patterns can also work across multiple products so if the sub brand changes the experience remains similar and consistent.
Design systems are launched but never really completed and so they should be as they should remain flexible to adapt to business direction, product evolution and changing design trends. Encouraging company wide contribution makes this iterative design process inclusive and helps to encourage the system’s internal adoption. Making contribution to the system as easy as possible is important and key to the system’s longevity.
My view is that anyone can have a good idea and not being a design or marketing team member can give an objective view on how patterns work in the real world. We all have different experiences on on websites and apps and all voices should be heard.
I enjoy putting the design systems together as they can add so much to streamline the design and production process with consistency, accessibility and usability for end users. Having a design system in place can also make a future re-brand much easier.
If you’ve enjoyed this read and my take on the value of design systems you can get in touch to discuss your design project via my contact page as I’m always happy to discuss design!