Looking for a way of improving your design-development workflow? You need a design system! Why? Because it will help you work better, much faster ...
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
Hi Tomek! Nice post! We should be careful when using the term Design System to only describe the physical design assets and branding guidelines! A Design System is made up of the Design Language (design assets like Sketch Kit, AI Kit, etc. and branding guidelines such as accessibility, motion, etc.), Component Library (coded components usually in React, Vue, Angular, or another popular JS library/framework), and the style guide (which are the physical websites you've linked above that document the design language & component library).
We often see designers use the phrase "Design System" to describe the Design Language and developers use the phrase "Design System" to describe the Component Library & Style Guide, but it's really all of these things.
You can take a look at my slides if you would like to learn more :) slides.com/emmawedekind/design-for...
Thanks, good point :)
No worries though, I see this all the time and it's because Design Systems don't have a ton of information out in the world yet!
Hi Tomek,
Thanks for this post, I think it helps to clarify and categorize the various parts for those that are looking to understand what a design system is. I think for some the term still equates to colors, fonts, and just the style structure. I think for old school designers like myself it can be hard to not think of things like CSS when we hear these newer terms.
@tomekponiat
Great post thanks for taking the time to create a write up
I have been new to this world of design systems and component libraries and I was wondering whether there is any tool that can help ease the pain transitioning from the designs to actually creating the components/patterns.
@emmawedekind thanks for the clarification makes sense
Nice post! I will add that it is very important to also know the differences between the design system and manuals, for example, here are some key differences given in the article gapsystudio.com/blog/what-is-a-des...
UI-kit and guidelines are products, and the design system is a methodology;
The UI kit is assembled after the completion of the design project;
A design system is created when at least one project is completed and there is data for analysis.
What is the diff between DS and guidelines?
Style Guide/Guidelines is a subclass of a proper design system, while design system, as mentioned by Emma, is more complex and contains Design Language, Component Library and Style Guide.
Thanks! Good to know.