Brad Frost on design systems

What is a design system and what does it include?

A design system is the official story of how an organization designs and builds products. It includes design principles, UI components, UX guidelines, code standards, processes, design toolkits, code repositories, resources, etc.

Common vocabulary

Design systems help establish a common vocabulary between everyone in the organization for components, animations, and other design ingredients.

Challenges in building and maintaining a reliable design system (4)

Include (1) cultural readiness, (2) real application reflection, (3) fitting into teams' workflows, and (4) defining processes for updates and maintenance

Design Thinking

Design thinking helps evolve design into problem-solving, and a design system can scale these solutions across products.

Advantages of design systems (2)

Building a design system (1) leads to a more consistent user experience and (2) enables teams to launch higher quality work efficiently.