Create a Seamless User Experience at Scale with a Design System 

The current digital landscape can be daunting to manage—every company with any level of digital presence (which is to say, most every company) balances a mix of websites, mobile applications, blogs, emails, chatbots, and more, all of which need to meet ever-expanding customer needs and stay up-to-date technologically. They need to carry unified functionality and branding, while remaining flexible enough to adapt and scale to meet new demands. It is a long way from the early days of the internet, when an organization or company could simply launch a new, static website with a refreshed look and feel every five to ten years.

Of course, this rapid change can make keeping up feel intimidating. How is it possible to keep content, design, and technology all moving in the same direction at what can often feel like a breakneck pace? But just as demands have grown and expanded, fortunately so have the tools available to help make them easier to manage. Content and technology processes can be streamlined using composable architecture while the design elements that support both can benefit from using a design system.

A design system is a centralized way to manage the assets, styles, and branding elements used to create digital experiences in a dynamic, consistent, and scalable manner. It consists of two parts—a library of reusable elements and patterns and a clear set of guidelines. Together, these items become the building blocks for designing and developing user interfaces. This may sound similar to a tool that has been available for some time, digital asset management (DAM), but the key difference is that DAM is just a repository of design assets. It is the inclusion of a clear and consistent set of guidelines that differentiates a design system. Knowing exactly where and when elements can (and cannot) be used is foundational to maintaining brand consistency and enabling teams to work more efficiently across various digital products.  

Accessibility

The Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says “Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can... perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web.” Planning for maximum accessibility “also benefits people without disabilities [such as] people using mobile phones, smart watches, smart TVs, and other devices with small screens, different input modes, etc... people using a slow Internet connection, or who have limited or expensive bandwidth,” and a variety of others. 

Application Programming Interface (API)

Wikipedia defines an API as “a way for two or more computer programs or components to communicate with each other”—essentially, they act as bridges between various services and applications, enabling data exchange and functionality sharing. By prioritizing APIs, organizations can ensure that their systems are interoperable and future-proof. Composable systems use APIs to display back-end data to front-end users.  

Component Library

 As the name suggests, a component library (also called a design library) is a repository for reusable user interface (UI) elements, where both designers and developers can access pre-approved elements for use. Individual elements can be grouped for use together in a pattern library. 

Composable Architecture

When designing for the web, composable architecture consists of building web structures in reusable components that can be mixed and matched to create varied digital experiences. The backend components are separated from the front-end user interface, so they can be displayed in different ways depending on where they appear. This separation of front and back end allows for maximum flexibility and speeds development. 

Style Guide

The user experience (UX) researchers Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g), define a style guide as “specific implementation guidelines, visual references, and design principles for creating interfaces or other design deliverables. The most common style guides tend to focus on branding (colors, typography, trademarks, logos, and print media), and visual- and interaction-design standards (also known as front-end style guides). These guidelines are sometimes incorporated into the component library as well, to provide relevant guidance in context.” 

There are numerous benefits to using a design system, including:

• Refocuses design team efforts
• Speeds up design and development
• Creates a unified language
• Ensures brand consistency
• Provides a cohesive user experience
• Incorporates accessibility and responsive design
• Allows for flexibility
• Serves as an educational tool

Refocuses design team efforts

 Design systems can significantly change the day-to-day work of designers. Using pre-defined components and patterns allows new pages, sites, and applications to be built quickly, without starting anew each time. Removing what has traditionally been a time consuming, repetitive task for designers allows them to instead focus their efforts on more complex problems. Providing this time for higher level work can result in more creative and innovative solutions and enhanced user experiences.

Speeds up development

Having access to a design system can help developers to rapidly reproduce designs by assembling pre-built components. These elements can be used and re-used as many times as needed, allowing businesses to quickly scale their digital experience by launching new pages, apps, etc., while also keeping new items consistent with other work.

Creates a unified language

Design and development rarely sit in the same team when it comes to building digital experiences, and even when they do, workplaces are more dispersed than ever before, with remote and hybrid roles increasingly common. And, in many cases, teams across design, marketing, and development will all be working on different pages and products simultaneously. A design system ensures that everyone can rely on a set of components that are approved, up-to-date, and correctly branded. Developers don’t need to check in with design, and no one has to wait for someone to wake up in a different time zone to approve their design choices.

Ensures brand consistency

A design system acts as a single source of truth, ensuring that every digital touchpoint maintains the correct brand identity. This creates a consistent visual brand across channels, which builds familiarity, trust, and loyalty among users.  

Provides a cohesive user experience

The consistency provided by a design system helps to create a seamless user experience, where familiar elements and patterns exist across pages and platforms, making for a smooth transition from one to another. This cohesion makes using a brand’s digital tools more intuitive and enjoyable, which also builds customer loyalty.

Incorporates accessibility and responsive design

A well-created design system will account for best practices in accessibility and responsive design as part of its library of elements and the guidelines that support them. This will ensure that the digital experiences built will function across various devices and screen sizes, making them useable for the broadest number of people possible. Removing barriers to access creates a better user experience across the board.

Allows for flexibility

Design systems offer flexibility by allowing components to have different “skins” for sub-brands, microsites, etc. This adaptability ensures that while the core design remains consistent, unique variations can cater to specific needs or audiences.  

Serves as training tool

New employees and junior-level team members can use a design system as a reference tool when learning the standards for both design and content for digital products. Additionally, having a codified set of standards ensures continuity as staff changes over time.  
 

While a design system on its own can be helpful in all the ways noted above, it truly shines when integrated with composable architecture, an approach to designing and building applications by assembling independent, self-contained, and interchangeable components. These complementary systems can be used to create nearly infinite combinations to create customized experiences, and new elements can be swapped or added without having to reengineer from scratch. This expanded flexibility has several advantages when implemented for web projects.

Rapid iteration and adaptation

The synergy between composable and a design system allows development and design teams to rapidly iterate, adapt, and scale applications. With a design system providing the visual and functional components, and composable architecture offering the structural flexibility, development becomes fast, efficient, and scalable.  

Enhanced collaboration

Working from a common set of front- and back-end elements can ease collaboration between design and development teams. The shared vocabulary of the design system and composable architecture makes it easy to ensure design intent and technical implementation align perfectly.  

Innovation and efficiency

Standardizing the basic building blocks for creating digital experiences allows teams more time and space to innovate. Effort can be expended collaborating on creative solutions, rather than in completing rote, mundane tasks.  

Design systems and composable architecture together represent a harmonious approach to digital product development, and they can lead to more efficient work, improved ability to scale quickly, and, most importantly, a better user experience. 

Given the complex nature of design systems, and the need for them to have extremely clear documentation to be effective, they are not something to be undertaken lightly. Yes, they are a game changer, but only if implemented thoughtfully. The following planning rubric can be helpful in starting off on the right foot.

Conduct a needs assessment

Look at current design and development processes and identify pain points. What is not working ideally? What might be ripe for improvement? Knowing the challenges up front will go a long way in helping create a system that meets specific organizational needs.

Identify key team members

For the creation of a design system to be effective, both designers and developers need to be engaged from the beginning, along with other key stakeholders within the organization. Look to create a team with diverse experiences and perspectives to cover as many bases as possible.

Start small and incorporate feedback

There is no need to immediately move all projects into a design system. It is better to start with a single, discrete project and grow. Be thoughtful and deliberate in creating the system for the pilot and use feedback to iterate the system for additional projects.

Document everything 

Clear, detailed documentation is what separates a design system from a simpler DAM system. Designers and developers should be able to look to the system to find the appropriate guidelines and use cases for every asset it contains—as well as cases where specific assets cannot/should not be used.  

Make it easy to embrace

In any workplace, new tools are easy to abandon when they are rolled out badly. To ensure the design system's adoption, staff will need training and ongoing support, as well as encouragement to use it. By starting small and accumulating a growing series of successful use cases, team members will understand the value of the design system and how to use it. 

The pace of digital growth shows no sign of slowing, and the need to provide exceptional user experiences is unlikely to change, which means staying ahead of the curve with both design and development is of paramount importance. Implementing a design system prepares organizations to meet the ever-changing needs of the digital marketplace. It is about more than creating a more efficient and creative work environment; it is essential to providing users with a seamless experience at scale.  

Ready to explore the potential of a design system? Contact AgencyQ to start the conversation about how implementing a design system can help your organization save time and money by codifying design decisions that can be replicated at scale.