Design Systems – A Complete UI/UX Handbook

Time has been an essential factor in shaping a company’s responsibilities and roles and how it wishes to be perceived by the general public. As their requirements changed, the need to keep everyone informed became important.

Marketing contributed with its strategies, and UI/UX had to follow suit in branding. We created various documents containing guidelines, rules, and much more that one needs to follow to represent a particular brand.

One among those creations is design systems. A phrase continuously used when building products to better represent a company’s principles and framework. So today, we will explore design systems and understand why many call it a ‘UI/UX handbook.’

What are design systems?

The background work in designing digital products is often the foundational aspects that direct the product’s journey. Design systems are foundational, describing guidelines, design principles, and more.

In other words, a design system is a definitive guide that contains a company’s principles, visual elements, and UI components to help designers and developers align their work with the company’s.

Broadly, design systems include,

• Design principles
• UI components and patterns
• Style guide
• Usage guidelines
• Design tools and resources

The history of design systems – Consistency with time

Tracking the roots of design systems takes us back to the early days of digital design and traditional publishing when consistency began to shape with time. The mid-20th century brought in the importance of branding, and everyone was looking to build uniformity.

A digital revolution later, design systems became detailed, with a list of information that would serve as the design language for a brand’s products. Style guides, typographic standards, and more entered the corporate narrative, giving rise to brand guidelines.

As UI/UX services become more advanced, design systems benefited from being more standardized and efficient, with a clear focus on user-centric design. Sooner or later, websites, user interfaces, and applications had to create cohesive experiences across platforms. This helped establish the need for responsive designs, paving the way for better user experiences and crafting the modern take on design systems.

Modern design systems – the complete package

The evolution of design systems has been vital in shaping them for the modern era. Today, they go beyond design guidelines by covering rules for motion graphics, voice interfaces, micro-interactions, and more.

They empower teams to work collaboratively and pioneer design standards, helping brands make a relevant connection with their target base. This has helped in shaping design systems into the following

• Cross-disciplinary
  Design systems are no longer mere tools dictating the flow of work for designers. They are widely used by developers, content strategists, product managers, and the marketing department. This collaborative approach keeps everyone informed about the product, helping to create a viable user experience.

• Accessibility
  Products must be accessible to everyone regardless of their abilities and disabilities. This requirement has led to principles and practices that have ensured the end product’s compliance with legal and ethical accessibility standards. At Pepper Square, we follow ethical standards of design that always make the end product accessible to everyone.

• Flexibility
  Design languages must adapt to emerging trends, technology, and user needs, creating the need for flexibility. The addition of new components pioneered by trends is known to be a significant factor in raising the bar on flexibility. For example, Enterprise UX, which is designed for professionals covering apps offering B2B solutions, will benefit from a flexible design system due to the emerging needs of their user base.

• Adoption
  Design systems are no longer specific to industries. In the modern era, they have been widely adopted across industries ranging from finance and healthcare to tech, education, and more. This adoption marks the importance of user-centric digital experiences and the need amongst these industries to meet such requirements. Delivering high-quality experiences is the need of the hour.

The components of a design system – the library

The components of a design system, commonly called the component library, are a toolbox containing pre-built UI elements and guidelines for using them. The vital information that they contain is used by a wide range of individuals when designing and developing products linked to a particular brand.

• Principles
  These foundational values and beliefs drive the entire design and decision-making process. Individuals working on the project must embrace these principles and ensure they are reflected in their work.

• Style guide
  The style guide documents the design standards, including the color schemes, typography, and other visual elements.

• UI kit
  The UI kit, which details the components that need to be used, commonly contains premade user interface components such as buttons, checkboxes, and more.

• Patterns and guidelines
  This section contains best practices and patterns touching upon design and user experience. From form design to data visualization guidelines, we receive a lot in terms of providing a cohesive user experience and making it all user-centric.

• Icons and graphics
  Icons, illustrations, and other graphic elements that must be consistently used will predominantly feature here. While they aren’t constantly updated, brand evolution, design trends, and other aspects could lead to updates.

• Brand guidelines
  Specific aspects must always be followed when using a company’s logo, brand color palettes, etc. Following these guidelines will help establish uniformity across all digital products.

• Accessibility standards
  The standards of accessibility aim to create designs that can be accessed by everyone. In doing so, considerations relating to color contrast, screen reader support, and more come into the picture.

• Tools and resources
  Tools and resources are meant to support designers and developers in their quest to prepare a product for the digital world. Companies choose these resources carefully, weighing their features and the value they will generate in building the final product.

• Voice and tone
  Design systems are no longer considered complete without voice and tone. As these aspects talk about the brand’s personality, we must have a system to explain them. So, in this part of the design system, one will come across guidelines dealing with the communication style. Consistency is the aim, and voice and tone provide guidelines on language and how to maintain consistency.

• Animation
  Enhancing user experience is more than just a requirement. In modern times, designers are also utilizing AI to improve user experience. With that momentum in place, design systems add guidelines relating to motion design, transitions, and more for a better experience.

Following these guidelines is bound to make the result cohesive and bring out uniformity in all that is being done.

Benefits of a design system

At this point, we have understood the importance of design systems and their impact on developing user experience. While enhancing user experience is a part of the recipe, it is not the complete meal.

Design systems offer a few more benefits, and the following points capture some of the most important ones that one needs to know about.

• Efficiency
  The reusable components, patterns, and more found in design systems prevent designers from searching for such aspects or building them from scratch. This streamlines the design process by reducing time and helping designers effortlessly get things done.

• Collaboration
  Design systems are a common link for designers, developers, and other stakeholders, opening the door to smoother collaboration. Their clear guidelines help people communicate and reduce errors and inconsistencies.

• Scalability
  Design systems are built with the importance of scalability in mind. New features and components can easily be added, thereby promoting long-term growth. The smooth adaptation process also helps to stay with the times and create a formidable user experience.

• Streamline
  With the backing of a credible design system, tasks will be streamlined to achieve greater productivity. From onboarding to the final output, every task will be simplified as it accesses the prescribed rules and regulations.

• Flexibility
  Design systems make adapting and updating digital products easier, leading to a flexible and cost-effective approach. Brands don’t have to repeatedly create new designs or structure a new framework because the one in place is designed to be modern and flexible.

Problems and their respective solutions in implementing a design system

Problems are quite common in complex fields that require the collective effort of a team. When designing a mobile app, for example, you will need help developing cross-platform compatibility, performance optimization, and more.

How do you overcome them? By choosing quality service that adapts to times and continues to provide the best personal experience. While this highlights solutions for problems faced when designing a mobile app, let’s go ahead and discover problems and their respective solutions when it comes to implementing a design system.

Introducing the system

• Problem—One of the more fundamental problems in implementing a design system is introducing it to multiple teams and convincing them of its benefits. Individuals who may not know its impact tend to take time to adapt to a new system.

• Solution—The solution is to develop a plan that gradually works to convince multiple teams about the potential benefits of a design system. Beginning with individuals who don’t have a background in design will be an ideal way to start this process.

Here, one can utilize different techniques and highlight how a design system will only make their life easier.

Allocating resources

• Problem—Design systems must be regularly updated beyond their implementation. Multiple departments of an organization will have to prioritize their time and find ways to improve the system.
• Solution—There are multiple training programs or even sessions that tell you about the different ways to upgrade your design system. With knowledge of trends and other leading aspects, a design system can always stand the test of time.

At Pepper Square, we have always prioritized staying current with the design world and helping companies build design systems that best reflect their brand.

Sustained management

• Problem—Design systems require continuous improvements and adjustments, leading to sustained management that cannot be abandoned at any moment. Barring the initial setup, design systems also require upgrades that have occurred in the word of design.

• Solution—To keep a design system updated, one must assign the responsibility to a dedicated team of designers. They must be aware of the industry changes and dissect what these upgrades mean to their business.

The future of design systems

As more organizations prioritize accessibility and various other such requirements, the future of design systems is indeed in safe hands. Its ability to be scalable, flexible, and streamline tasks has always been important in attracting more companies to adopt this system.

In order to get it implemented, you need to showcase how the system adapts to designers, developers, and stakeholders. For designers, a design system is a way to merge creativity with brand consistency, ensuring maximum client satisfaction. The reusability factor will be a prominent requirement for developers to look out for this system’s adoption. For stakeholders, it is more about ROI. Hence, these factors collectively play a prominent role in ensuring that the future of design systems is in safe hands.

Through this blog, we have understood a design system, its components, importance, benefits, and challenges faced when implementing it. This is a complete walkthrough of one of the prominent factors that prioritize brand consistency.

In a day and age where brands are looking to stand out in the market, a design system will help them be distinct and aid designers and developers on how to proceed. As a powerful tool, design systems see their usage in different fields, ultimately making them synonymous with the business of branding.

However, branding requires expertise in fields such as design, content, video, and development. One requires a complete package that can be translated to an agency.

So, if you wish to get the complete package and begin your business’s branding journey, click on the banner below.