• 译 文 address: 5 Mislife UI Design Systems
  • Nethmi Wijesinghe
  • The Nuggets translation Project
  • Permanent link to this article: github.com/xitu/gold-m…
  • Translator: CarlosChenN
  • Proofreader: Z zhaojin, zaviertang

5 Misconceptions about UI design Systems

Have you heard these mistakes about designing systems before? Here are the facts behind them.

In modern Web development, maintaining a unified design language is critical when developing a product. It can speed up the development process, improve the user experience, and help resolve design contradictions.

However, there are many misconceptions about designing systems that can mislead developers. Here are five mistakes you should be aware of.

1. Is the design system designed for designers?

One of the common misconceptions about design systems is that designers develop the design system and developers just use it. This is mainly due to a misunderstanding of the boundaries of the design system.

While the design system starts with the product design or user experience team, it doesn’t end there.

Given that modern Web applications are developed with collections of UI components, design systems span simple UI elements, such as buttons or paragraphs, all the way down to the entire application.

Therefore, developing a design system requires the involvement and insight of both developers and designers.

2. Designing systems limits flexibility

Another common misconception about designing systems is that they limit flexibility when trying to upgrade or improve a design.

On the one hand, in order to maintain consistency, the design system should be accurate and unchanging. On the other hand, it should also provide flexibility for themes, paragraphs, colors, borders, and so on. In other words, a design system should provide the ability to customize the look and feel.

In addition, you shouldn’t be afraid to reuse design systems and allow your components to inherit their design characteristics. Anyway, if it doesn’t work, you can create one yourself.

3: The design system is just a style guide

This is one of the most common misconceptions about designing systems. A component library or design can only greatly influence the content of a design system.

However, a proper design system contains more, such as:

  • Design the token
  • Brand specification
  • Rules, constraints and guidelines
  • The UI tools
  • Code components

In a design system, these characteristics are required to establish standards for the entire application.

4: The design system is fixed

Indeed, the style of a design system does not need to change every other day. But it should be possible to constantly improve and change the design system to adapt to current trends and user behavior — rules, constraints, and guidelines — within the same building block

One significant advantage of having a design system is that improvements can be accomplished quickly with little work, because the design system is built on reusable components.

5. The design system of each product should be unique

Each product is unique, and sometimes what works for one product doesn’t work for another. But that doesn’t mean a design system can’t be reused across products.

In some cases, it makes sense to design a different design system for each unique product. But if a company has an interconnected product portfolio, reusing a single design system is often the best way to ensure compliance with brand specifications.

The biggest benefit is that companies don’t have to start from scratch every time they develop a new product.

Furthermore, they can use the design system to reference and reuse previously created components to develop new features based on requirements.

This paper summarizes

Building a unified design department may be slow at first, but it pays off in the long run. Good design systems bridge the gap between designers and developers, making them more productive.

Designing systems facilitates interdepartmental coordination to produce consistent UI and UX at every touch point of the product.

Therefore, collaboration between developers and designers is critical to building better design systems. So, whether you’re a designer or developer, don’t let the misconceptions listed here stop you from building and maintaining design systems.

Thank you for reading!

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