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Designing for Consistency: The Power of Design Systems
A look at how design systems improve brand consistency, boost efficiency, and scale seamlessly in both website and product design.
In 2016, Airbnb’s Design Language System (DLS) publicly set a new standard for building scalable design systems. While design systems had been evolving for some time, Airbnb’s approach had a profound impact on the industry. Combined with the rise of powerful design tools like Figma, this created a perfect storm of innovation to help companies expand their online presence while maintaining a consistent brand.
A design system creates a consistent brand experience across multiple touch points, improving the overall user experience and reinforcing brand identity. It is especially useful when working with more than one team member, ensuring everyone involved in the project adheres to the same visual standards.
At its core, a design system is a framework that enables designers to create visuals that are uniform across a brand. It is a collection of components, guidelines, and documentation to ensure uniformity in all compositions. Where style guides are focused more on documenting design decisions and visual standards, serving as a reference for maintaining consistency in specific design elements like typography and color palettes, a design system works as a practical application of those design decisions.
One of the main pieces of a design system is the component library. Components are like LEGOs, and a finished design is like an intricate LEGO sculpture. A component library houses elements like:
These components are designed to be reusable and flexible, allowing designers to combine them in different ways to create a wide range of layouts and interfaces.
Additionally, design systems utilize guidelines and documentation to ensure that the implementation of these components, color styles, and text styles are used in a uniform way. One way to do this is right in the Figma file by creating a visual breakdown for anyone to see and understand how to use a certain element. Inthis example, each color in a color scale used for a light and dark mode project shows each hue and how it should be used. The number in the scale indicates whether it should be used for a background, border color, or accessible text color.
One of the most significant benefits of using a design system is the consistency it brings across different products and marketing channels. By establishing a unified design language and component library, companies can ensure that their brand image is consistent and recognizable, regardless of where customers interact with them. This consistency also extends to the user experience, which is enhanced by the use of familiar design patterns and elements. For example, a customer who uses a company’s mobile app will have a similar experience when visiting their website, which helps build trust and loyalty.
Design systems also improve efficiency and reduce shortcuts or compromises made over time that result design debt, a degraded user experience, and inconsistent designs. While these shortcuts might save time initially, they often become costly to fix later. By reusing existing components from a design system, designers save time and avoid the need to repeatedly reinvent the wheel or compromise on quality. If the design calls for a button, they have one ready to use that matches all the others.
Furthermore, design systems are scalable and adaptable, making it easier to add new features and products without compromising the overall consistency. This flexibility is particularly important for companies that are rapidly growing or expanding into new markets, as it allows them to respond quickly to changing customer needs and preferences.
Your marketing website is often the first impression that potential customers have of you, making it a crucial touchpoint in the customer journey. A well-designed website can drive conversions, build trust, and establish your brand as a leader in its industry. However, creating a website that truly resonates with your target audience requires more than just a visually appealing design. It requires a cohesive brand experience that is consistent across all pages and interactions.
This is where a design system comes in. Using a design system for your website will create a consistent brand experience that reinforces your brand's values and messaging. A design system ensures that all elements of your website, from typography and color palettes to imagery and layouts, align with your brand's overall visual identity.
By using a design system in your website design, you can improve the user experience in several ways:
Our past experience as a part of the CrateBind product development team has shown us the power of design systems in action. We've had the privilege of working with clients like Mizzen + Main, a rapidly growing ecommerce men’s fashion brand, for over two years. From the outset, we established a design system that would serve as the foundation for their evolving brand. As we've continued to work together, we've seen their brand grow and change, but the design system has remained a constant, while also allowing for flexibility in the midst of their growth. This has allowed us to focus on what matters most—creating a seamless user experience that drives business results.
When designing for digital products, achieving consistency can be a challenge, especially as the product grows and evolves. What starts as an MVP continues to evolve into a mature product with growing needs.
In addition to creating a cohesive experience, a design system can help to facilitate collaboration between product designers and front-end developers. By providing a shared language and set of guidelines, a design system can ensure that everyone involved in the product design process is on the same page. This can help to reduce miscommunication and errors, and improve the overall quality of the product.
We’re so sold on the idea that we've taken our expertise to the next level by creating our own in-house design system called Minerva. This reusable template is designed to kickstart new projects with a fully structured set of components and styles, allowing us to hit the ground running. By leveraging Minerva, we can save valuable time in the design phase, focusing on the unique needs of each brand rather than starting from scratch. It's like the difference between moving into a house that needs cosmetic updates versus building a new house from the ground up.
In the end, a well-implemented design system is the key to unlocking a project’s full potential. By streamlining workflows, optimizing a designer’s time, and ensuring a cohesive user experience, a design system can be a game-changer for projects of all sizes. Whether you're an early-stage startup or a large enterprise, a design system can help you save time, reduce costs, and create a better product that meets the needs of your users. By investing in a design system, you're not just investing in a tool—you're investing in a foundation for long-term success.
