When a new project starts, the design team usually creates a visual style. But what if the designers already had a stash of pre-made components to work with? That would speed up their progress significantly and help create a more cohesive look for the project right from the start. This is just one of the benefits of a design system. A design system acts like a library that helps teams manage design and development assets for faster, more organized work. The more organized the assets are, the easier it is to find and use them. This helps teams create a consistent look for a project, improves collaboration, and boosts productivity. If you’re new to design systems, this article will explain the benefits of a design system for companies and designers and how design system tools like Ion can help.

You’ll also discover how Ion’s design-to-code tool can help you implement your design system faster to achieve your goals sooner.

What is a Design System?

A design system is the ultimate toolkit for creating digital products that feel cohesive, intuitive, and unmistakably on-brand. Think of it as a playbook that brings together all the building blocks like:

• Buttons
• Fonts
• Colors
• Layouts
• The rules for how to use them

It’s not just about making things look good; it’s about ensuring that every app, website, or platform a company creates seamlessly works. Imagine you’re designing an app. Without a design system, every button, menu, or input box might look slightly different depending on who made it or when. That inconsistency can confuse users and make the product feel unpolished. A design system prevents that by providing a library of reusable components like dropdown menus or notification banners so everyone on the team can pull from the same set of polished tools. But it’s not just about the visuals. 

Interaction Guidelines and Content Standards

A design system also outlines interaction guidelines like when to use a slide-out panel or whether images should resize with a pinch gesture. It can include rules about content, too, like whether menu items should be verbs (“Sign In”) or nouns (“Login”). For voice-controlled systems, a design system might define how responses should sound or how users should be guided through tasks. 

The Evolving Nature of Design Systems: A Win-Win for Developers, Designers, and Users

Google’s Material Design is a famous example. It doesn’t just provide a set of buttons or icons; it guides how they should behave, feel, and adapt to different screen sizes or contexts. The beauty of a design system is that it evolves as products grow. It’s not a one-and-done document it’s a living resource that changes with user needs and new technologies. 

Developers love it because many elements come pre-coded, speeding up the build process. Designers love it because it ensures every screen feels part of the same family. And users? They get a product that’s easier to navigate and more delightful. It’s a win-win all around. 

Related Reading

• Design System Documentation
• Design System vs Style Guide
• Design Handoff

13 Benefits Of A Design System For Companies & Designers

1. Cohesive Digital Interfaces

A design system promotes cohesive digital interfaces. Let’s stick with the blue button. Users know that it will perform a stated action. Part of how they know that is that they’ve seen the same button do it before. Cohesive design builds user habits and expectations. When users know what to expect, they don’t exert as much mental effort or “cognitive load” to complete a task. They do what they need to do faster.

What if a user came across a yellow button? They might pause or even abandon the experience entirely. Incohesive designs can block people from completing their tasks. Backend fixes to address these issues require rework. This is also known as technical debt and design debt. Teams can avoid much of it with a design system that maintains cohesion and speeds up development time. 

2. Efficient Product Development

Creating cohesive designs doesn’t take long. It’s faster when you use a design system. Consider the time it takes a designer to create a button in an error state versus lifting one that exists in their design system. An investigation showed a 34% reduction in hours‌ worked. That’s just design time. Take it a step further and consider developer time. They don’t have to write that code or the companion code that guides screen reader software. It’s all in the design system.

Designers and developers move quickly with components and other building blocks on hand. They can repeat and reuse assets. This speeds up product cycles. Who wouldn’t want to cut a six-month cycle down to six weeks? Saving time is saving budget, too. And that’s just for the initial project. Let’s say there’s an update needed across all buttons. With a design system, it can be updated once and propagated across an app, even if there are a thousand buttons in that app! 

3. Better Team Collaboration

Whether you have someone new to your organization or are trying to get multiple teams on the same page, you can benefit from a design system.  By maintaining a centralized design repository and extensive guidelines in:

• One system
• Developers
• Designers
• Product managers
• New teammates 

Can improve their knowledge-sharing and easily reference the most current source of information to ensure consistency across projects. When you invest time upfront to build an enterprise design system and keep it updated, you’re also investing in improved cross-departmental collaboration, alignment across your organization, enhancement of employees’ knowledge, and a deepened understanding of your brand.

4. Accelerate Development Efficiency

If it hasn’t been clarified, a design system differs from a set of specs developers use on projects. Its dynamic and modularity differentiate a design system from just a set of guidelines. The fact that designers and developers continuously update the system means that it easily supports agile methodology, helping improve team development efficiency.

With a complete design system, developers can spend less time searching for the “right component” or coding tedious design elements instead of improving a product, shipping updates, or building something brand new.

The Power of Enterprise Design Systems: Streamlining Updates and Enhancing Consistency

When you integrate an enterprise design system with what you’re building, design updates that once sat in a backlog can now be easily applied to all products. For example, maybe you need to change the color of a button across different versions of your app. If you make the necessary change in your design system and push it to the associated projects, there’s no need to waste devs’ time manually coding a new button color for each channel or device.

Good design is like a refrigerator. When it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks

5. Reduce Costs & Errors

No matter the size of your company, the hope is that if it’s successful, growth is imminent. For organizations that are already large or experiencing growth, scaling design and dev processes can become quite complicated.

Whether implementing a new component to your app, rewriting code logic, or mocking up a new design, contributing to any of these processes requires a lot of back and forth between different team members and departments. Without design systems, developers and designers often spend a lot of valuable time communicating, and sometimes miscommunicating, about different aspects of a project: 

• Is this the current version of the logo? 
• What’s the HEX code for our nav bar? 
• Is this the right button style for our app? 

And so on are examples of tedious questions repeatedly asked across teams. This is an inefficient way of working and can increase room for error and, in turn, costs for a business. 

According to Drew Loomer, a Managing Architect at projekt202, a design system can eliminate code redundancy, saving more than 20 percent of a developer’s time. He emphasizes this point writing, “If you had a team of 100 developers, this could mean a savings of $2M per year.”That’s a significant cost reduction with reduced errors to boot!

6. Improve Time to Market

For companies without design systems, it can be common for designers and developers to sift through several components and elements to choose the right variant of a button or color to apply to their projects.

Enterprise design systems benefit both teams by eliminating these repetitive tasks. This frees employees to work on innovative ideas to move a project forward. A set of reusable assets in a single library also reduces time spent by developers who previously would have had to code each asset for every project. This leads to the ability to iterate and ship updates faster, improving the overall time to market for organizations.

7. Promote Equality

Doing what is right becomes increasingly important for employees and companies. Equality and inclusion are two aspects in which design systems can have a small impact.

One important aspect is accessibility. A standardized set of colors and components allows you to ensure that designs meet accessibility standards.

Apart from technology, communication has great potential for inclusion. It’s what we do and what we say and show. Adjust your copy guidelines to teach people about inclusive language and common pitfalls. Providing illustration libraries or images that promote inclusion. Show people of diverse:

• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity

People in wheelchairs or people recovering from injuries. Try to stay away from stereotypes and avoid your bubble. Often people are unaware of how they exclude others. Providing examples and ideas in the design system can open new doors for many who never thought about those topics.

8. Reduces the Need for Manual Adjustments

A design system often includes standard patterns and conventions for:

• Typography
• Layout
• Color schemes, etc.

These standards are designed to reduce the need for manual adjustments when creating designs. This means you'll save time by not having to make these changes constantly throughout your projects.

9. Scalability

A well-designed system can quickly adapt to different projects and scales well for larger teams. This is because it uses established patterns and conventions that are easy to follow. As a result, you'll be able to create designs faster and with fewer errors, saving you time and money.

10. Gets Everyone on the Same Page

A design system will help ensure that everyone involved in a project works from the same set of standards. This ensures consistency and eliminates any potential conflicts or disagreements. As a result, your team will be able to work more efficiently and effectively together.

11. Allows Room for Innovation

A design system allows you to experiment and develop new features without fear of causing confusion or conflict. This is because the system will provide standards that all users will adhere to. Using conventions throughout your project can help reduce the trial-and-error required when developing new features.

12. Closing the Brand-Product Gap

Product teams creating apps using only traditional style guides often end up with inconsistent results. The brand personality gets lost in translation. Having one team translate a brand into interface elements can solve this issue. Creating a UI component library from a brand philosophy can be tricky. You need to keep the expressive branding aspects in mind. 

Accessibility and a very diverse set of devices must be considered. This is a tedious job, requiring much experimentation and tweaking. Luckily with a design system, this gets done by one team. The rest of the organization enjoys the results tokens and components that are ready to use. Product teams can rest assured knowing their designs will always be on brand. A separate design systems team has another advantage: They have a broader idea of all possible applications without being tied to a specific platform. In their experimentation, they will look at how something plays out on the web, mobile, and other platforms.

13. Increase Customer Retention

An intuitive and well-thought-out experience can increase conversion and build customer loyalty, generating a compound effect in the long run.

Nielsen Norman Group notes: “If a task was particularly easy to accomplish compared to the user’s expectations, that experience may have positive affect toward the product the user may be likely to recommend the product to a friend and become a return user.”

Better team collaboration and intelligent resource allocation create a seamless experience for your customers across platforms and in-app, efficiently setting the stage for long-term growth.

Design-Driven Development

Ion transforms your Figma designs into production-ready code perfectly aligned with your existing codebase and business needs. Our platform bridges the gap between design and development by automatically generating functional code that matches your:

• Specific components
• Styles
• Design system

We've created a unique solution that empowers non-technical team members to implement visual changes without engineering intervention. Our tool understands your:

• CI/CD pipelines
• Testing requirements
• Component architecture

This ensures that generated code fits seamlessly into your workflow. Whether you're updating design elements or creating new features, Ion helps unlock engineering resources by letting designers and product teams contribute directly to the codebase in a safe, controlled way. 

Start building your application for free today with our design-to-code tool. 

Related Reading

• Design System Governance
  
• What is a Design System
• Design System vs Component Library

5 Popular Examples Of Design Systems

1. Google Material Design: A Decade of Structured Consistency

Google Material Design has been a game-changing design system since its introduction in 2014. The system builds upon the metaphor of material, meaning that components are created to mimic the physical world and its textures. The idea is that when components behave like real-world objects, they become more familiar and predictable, reducing cognitive load for users. Material Design is comprehensive and covers various topics ranging from design principles like color, typography, and iconography to UI components, many open-source to code documentation, and other resources. 

In 2018, Google introduced Material Theming, which extends Material Design principles to other brands, allowing designers to style components according to their needs. It added much-needed flexibility to the system by offering ways to customize a single set of components. A series of hypothetical case studies and material Studies demonstrate how components can be styled to fit any product, ranging from a finance app to an eCommerce app.

2. Audi: Design Guidelines that Go Beyond Aesthetics

Audi’s design guidelines include a set of UX principles, or paradigms, and a collection of UI components with interactive demos and expandable code snippets. A unique element within each component page is a set of images demonstrating the correct and incorrect implementation of each one. 

The site also includes guidelines for UI animation, which can help walk users through a process, improve orientation, or provide feedback. The site includes visual and style guidelines and diverse guidance around marketing, corporate sounds, motion pictures, and dealership branding. 

3. Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Help for Designers and Developers Alike

Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines are for those who design, develop, and distribute apps through Apple’s platforms:

• macOS
• iOS
• watchOS
• tvOS
• visionOS

The brand has additional guidelines organized by tech vertical, covering 28 additional branded elements such as:

• CarPlay
• HomeKit
• Augmented Reality
• iCloud and Wallet

Under each platform, you can find guidance on app architecture, user interaction, system capabilities, and visual design. Each section offers in-depth guidance on each interface element's intended use and rationale. The goal is to ensure that apps offered through Apple’s platforms feel familiar and consistent to people who use them. There’s also an extensive resource library with:

• Sketch
• Photoshop
• Adobe XD files

Which house a range of UI elements and specifications. You can also watch video sessions and tutorials on how to build intuitive, user-friendly experiences.

4. Microsoft Fluent Design System: An Open Source Approach to Building UX

First developed in 2017, Fluent is a collection of UX frameworks and UI components that share code, a unified design approach, and a consistent set of interaction behaviors. The design system helps build coherent experiences across the web:

• Windows
• iOS
• Android
• macOS platforms

Microsoft announced Fluent 2, touted as the design system's next evolution, enabling more seamless collaboration and creativity. Fluent two highlights five sensory elements:

• Light
• Depth
• Motion
• Material
• Scale

Using the physical world as its vocabulary. By taking inspiration from the physical world, Fluent guides the creation of experiences that feel as natural as possible. 

This can extend across devices people use throughout their day (like tablets and mobile), plus experiences designed beyond a flat screen (such as mixed reality interfaces). Fluent is an open-source design system. It’s connected to a LinkedIn group where customers, partners, and a community of designers and developers can submit feedback to help improve the system.

5. Salesforce Lightning Design System: A Design System that Evolved Over Time

Created nearly ten years ago, the Salesforce Lightning Design System is an excellent example of an evolved design system. SLDS establishes principles and best practices for designing enterprise applications across the Salesforce ecosystem. Rather than focusing on pixels, it allows designers to focus on user experience, interactions, and flows and helps developers focus on application logic. 

Salesforce also pioneered design tokens, which store visual design attributes (e.g., color, font size, spacing) that can be applied and updated across components and platforms. Rather than hard-coding individual values as visual designs evolve, design tokens ensure that changes are reflected across the product experience. They allow for a consistent visual system that's also much simpler to scale.

6 Tips to Create And Implement a Design System for Your Company

1. Review Current Style Guides

Start by reviewing existing style guides. This step ensures a smooth transition from your current design system and that your new one aligns with your brand’s established visual language. For example, you may have specific color schemes or fonts. 

Note the hex codes, font spacing, and other design specifications to transfer to the new system. The aim is to enhance, and not deviate from, your core visual identity.

2. Assess Existing User Interfaces

Assess your current user interfaces. Identify patterns, inconsistencies, and improvement areas in your UI’s existing designs. This will help you decide what to retain and refine and what new elements to introduce. It’s also wise to remove unnecessary clutter and keep the essential components that address real-world needs. Consider performing a UI audit to reveal inconsistencies in icon styles across web pages. Based on this report, your new design system can introduce standardized icon elements to help improve consistency and functionality.

3. Establish Your Design Language

Establish your design language. Define a set of design principles, including visual elements like color combinations, typography, and iconography, to establish a recognizable aesthetic.

For example, in its condensed variation, you may use dark emerald green (hex code #27592D) and the Roboto font. Designers rely on these guidelines to create an enterprise design network of components and patterns that complement your company’s overall design language.

4. Build a Library of Components and Patterns

Now, it’s time to build your design system. Create an extensive UI kit of reusable and modular design components, including navigation bars, icons, and grids. A well-organized collection of design elements with a naming or numbering system allows cross-functional teams to find and implement components across projects quickly. 

A common pattern is dropdown menus. Having a ready-made template with numbered, predesigned components (such as “blue navbar #12” or “menu icon #3”) lets you combine designs for different screens and online channels. This type of design library improves your flexibility and scalability.

5. Set Governance Guidelines

Set governance guidelines. A design system has three typical governance models: solitary, centralized, and federated. Each type offers a distinct approach to decision-making and role management within the development and design process: 

• Solitary: Decision-making resides with a single entity or small group, like a project manager or suite of high-level executives, who can make decisions independently without collaboration or input from other teams. 
• Centralized: A dedicated department or UI/UX design team controls decisions, with room for collaboration and input from other departments, ensuring cross-functional involvement.
• Federated: This model distributes decision-making authority across multiple teams and entities within the organization, giving several departments control over different design processes. 

These governance guidelines prevent conflict, fragmentation, and organizational silos. With a shared understanding of roles, you can ensure updates are intentional and consistent and align with the company’s overarching design strategy.

6. Define Usage Protocols

The last step in building an enterprise design system is defining how teams should integrate it into their tasks and projects. Straightforward usage protocols empower development and design teams to leverage the system and collaborate effectively. Using clear documentation and guidelines helps minimize errors in implementation. 

You can also provide guidance on customizing styles within the system’s parameters so teams can deviate without compromising the core design language. For example, designers must adjust components for different screen sizes and devices. With the proper protocols, your teams have guidance in every situation, which empowers them to use the design system to its full potential.

Start Building Your Application for Free Today

Ion is a tool that transforms your Figma designs into production-ready code. Moreover, it automatically aligns this code with your existing codebase and business needs. Design and development can feel like two very different worlds. 

Our tool helps bridge this gap by automatically generating functional code that matches your specific:

• Components
• Styles
• design system

With ion, even non-technical team members can implement visual changes without engineering intervention. 

‍The platform understands your: 

• CI/CD pipelines
• Testing requirements
• Component architecture

ensuring that g-generated code fits seamlessly into your workflow. Whether you’re updating design elements or creating new features, Ion helps unlock engineering resources by letting designers and product teams contribute directly to the codebase in a safe, controlled way. 

Related Reading

• Best Design Systems
• How to Create a Design System

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