What is Design System?
A design system is a documented collection of design principles, UI components, patterns, and guidelines that ensure consistent design across all products and platforms. Components: Design tokens (colors, typography, spacing), component library (buttons, forms, cards), pattern library (layouts, navigation), brand guidelines, documentation and examples. Famous design systems: Material Design (Google), Human Interface Guidelines (Apple), Polaris (Shopify), Carbon (IBM). Benefits: Consistency, efficiency, scalability, better collaboration between design and development. A design system is a living document that needs continuous maintenance.
Key Points
- Collection of reusable components
- Design tokens + components + patterns
- Creates consistency across products
- Accelerates design and development
- Known: Material Design, Apple HIG
- Living documentation, continuous maintenance
Practical Example
“With our design system, designers and developers can implement new features 3x faster.”