Design Systems
Making design scalable
Digital products are constantly changing. A focus group indicates that the design should be different, the company gets a rebranding or the marketing team decides that a button should be replaced to a different location. Every change triggers a chain reaction, which takes a lot of valuable time.
To create consistency in their designs, most companies use a design system. A design system is a well-documented, overarching set of rules and agreements on how to create products and communications by using components. The single source of truth, you might say.
You’re not just designing ‘apps and websites’ anymore. You are designing your digital transformation. And the stakes are high.
Design systems are not only about the design - it’s also impacting the way developers and designers work together. It makes the cooperation run smoother and automates unnecessary work.
Why you need a design system
If you're a manager, director, product owner, product lead or C-level executive at a scale-up or large company you will probably recognise one or multiple challenges or opportunities listed below. These are the symptoms that identify the need of a scalable design approach.
Build better products
You're building the same components from scratch over and over again, teams work in silo's or components are not documented. Build products with higher quality that need less effort to develop them.
Shorten your time-to-market
Your documentation is scattered in Confluence or Wiki pages, design files, prototyping tools, Jira tickets or PDF exports. Build products with higher quality that need less effort to develop them.
Reusability & Consistency
You're building the same components from scratch over and over again, teams work in silo's or components are not documented. Create reusable components and clear standards to create a consistent user experience in every interaction a person has with your products or services.
One single source of truth
Different files such as design files, design handoff sources and development assets create a fragmented source of truth. Share components on an automated documentation platform and close the gap between design and development.
How we can help you
Getting started
As-is audit
Help your company see the value of design system
- Create a UI inventory of your current products
- Make a technical inventory: to what extent is the codebase component-based and using shared primitives?
- Align the design inventory with technical opportunities
Process Audit
Working towards an actionable plan for implementation in your organisation
- Audit your current tooling, processes & ways of working
- Define an initial design systems scope
- A clear plan to secure the required buy-in
First Components
Unifying your visual and UI design and designing your first components
- Visual guidelines
- Common components
- Product-specific core components
- Optional: product ready front-end code