The Importance of a Design System

With the concept of ‘Design Systems’, a whole new approach comes in, that can cause a great impact on how a product team approaches design as a whole. With a solid, consistent, well explained and thought out system, the visual aspect of creating a design becomes totally modular.

A few reasons why a good design system is important are listed below:

Reduces Your Design Debt

‘Design debt’ also called ‘Technical or code debt’ is a concept in software development that reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy solution, instead of using a better approach that would take longer. Design debt is an issue that usually arises as the organisations scale.
Keeping up with the constant changes is what a good design will help you do. Every now and then new features are added and the old ones are outdated. A good design system will support these changes and help adjust with them.

Eliminate Inconsistencies

Design systems help eliminate inconsistencies. Every system begins with a detail audit of the visual components within a product. This audit analyses the entire product and designs, ensuring proper functioning of the product. This process eventually gives out detailed information about the inconsistencies that are found during the audit. It shows where the designs are lacking and what all needs to be improved. An audit can also reveal the weaknesses of the existing visual system.

Speed Up Your Process

A strong, fast and a unified design system helps satisfy the end users as well as the people within the organisation. A good system will help speed up the designing process which will eventually help in maintaining good relations among the departments and employees.

When the entire organization is on the same page, teams can move faster, communicate better and ultimately increase the speed at which products are updated and released.

This system keeps everyone in one loop, preventing any delay and duplication of work.

Make Your Customers’ Lives Easier

Yes! The internal system of an organisation can affect the customers, who are a part of the external environment. By creating a consistent experience for the customer, we can reduce the cognitive load created when switching from a mobile app experience to a desktop browser experience.

A good design system unifies the internal and external users and provide a greater experience. It keeps them in one system, allowing easy flow of information between them which makes it easier to work and communicate. It also helps teams see the most important and most commonly used elements and components of the product.