Challenges

When to create components

It can become hard for teams to make decisions on whether a new component should be created or not for certain situations. The Design System library can quickly be filled with many solutions that solve the same problem in the product. Inconsistency arises and the Design System becomes a burden, rather than a reliable structure to build interfaces.

💡Building guidelines

💡Communication with other teams

💡Start with the basics

💡Developers and designers must be hand-in-hand

Building a live Design System

We can define different types of communication formats. A centralized approach leads to teams solely dedicated to maintaining a Design System; a less centralized approach leads to many individuals iterating the Design System together from their own teams. Either way, the design system should be updated constantly and be in sync with the latest changes.

💡Form a focus group to bootstrap & iterate the design system

Getting everyone on board

It is definitely one of the biggest challenges companies face. The bigger the company, the harder it gets to scale a Design System to all the teams.

💡Invite everyone to the party

💡Single Source of Truth

💡Announcements

Design Systems are not a simple choice. These challenges are tied with the scale of the company, the team and the product itself. Like a living organism, the Design System evolves as an integral part of the company. It adapts to the ever-changing, fast development cycles of product development and scales efficiently if built with care.

Implementing a Design System is not an action, but a process.