Design systems are a great way for a brand to achieve consistency, efficiency and collaboration in their digital operations. However, we’ve seen quite a few design systems that have simply derailed over time.
A design system is a collection of standards, guidelines and reusable components that help teams create digital products. Design systems span across an organization’s digital ecosystem, and so for medium-sized enterprises upwards, they are core concerns for both IT and marketing alike.
While the benefits of design systems can be considerable, managing them is no light undertaking. Design systems are not just static documentation systems, they are ever-changing and only work in practice if digital experiences are properly based on their principles. And even if your design system is amazing and properly set up, their value can be lost if you fail to achieve the correct scope and governance.
At Luxid, we’ve identified a few very common issues that prevent organizations from properly leveraging the benefits of their design system:
1) The design system is too detached from the users and is over-designed
2) People are not trained on how to use the design system
3) Updates to the system are not properly communicated
There is no one clear solution to managing design systems that works for all businesses. However, there are set of clear principles and actions that organizations can adopt to make sure design systems are working effectively and they are getting the most from them. So, let’s look at how some of these principles can be applied to resolve some of the common problems experienced by organizations.
Tackling scope challenges
One challenge for many organizations is knowing how far to take the design system in terms of the specific areas it covers. Problems can occur when the design system is too detached from the users.
Some systems have very low adoption rates as users don’t see it touching their activities and are simply not invested in it. They may dip into it, but if it doesn’t work for them or seems irrelevant, they will simply ignore it.
The obvious solution is simply to increase the scope of the system. But in doing this an organization must assess why the system was under scoped to start with. Engaging users requires the right scope but also the right governance activities.
We’ve found that frequent, smaller design system launches can be effective as it lets users try the system while making sure you have ample resources to address fixes. Frequent updates make the system come alive and communicating them encourages people to get on onboard.
Over-engineered design systems
Unfortunately, over-engineered design systems are all too common. While done with the best of intentions, all the effort in engineering can get lost in the detail. A full-blown layout of options may seem helpful for users but will usually start to become suffocating.
We’ve seen two types of over-engineering design systems:
1) There are too many strict rules – every little detail is described leaving no room for interpretation.
2) There are so many options and layouts it becomes impossible to read the documentation. This could result from too many strict rules, but also from trying to design every single state of a component. Designers and product teams need some freedom to solve their unique challenges and problems. These should not all be covered by the design system.
Getting the right level of rules and detail is a delicate balancing act, as is the right level of scope and governance. Gather feedback and review the usage of components in your design system. If usage is low or dropping, it could be due to the extent and complexity of the rules, but also issues with the scope.
Overcoming governance challenges
Governance is all about the work you put into making sure that users are applying the design system appropriately.
The first area of focus is change management, which is notoriously difficult. People are used to working in certain frameworks and patterns, so asking them to follow a design system – no matter how good – requires them to put in additional effort.
We suggest starting with a few key components of the system and trying them out with a group of champions. Test different approaches with them and see what works best. Your champions will play a key role in making the system work across the ecosystem. Figma analytics can help in seeing whether components are being detached by designers.
The next area is training. Designers will be the early adopters and promoters of the system, but you first need to convince and empower them. We recommend reviewing and assessing their level of knowledge of the design system, and tooling and adjusting the design system accordingly. From this point, you can apply training to drive adoption and belief.
Communication on updates is another key area of governance. Often, we hear about design system owners performing communication on updates downstream. However, gathering feedback and updating the design system bottom-up – or upstream – is equally important and often completely forgotten about. A design system should be vibrant and live, and so is constantly updated, both up- and downstream.
A way to achieve this type of updating is to create a library where anyone can create components – elements that aren’t in the design system but might be wanted by the community. If a critical number of people start to use the ‘open source’ components, then they can be considered for inclusion in the design system.
Driving adoption and added value
If everything with the new design system is being done correctly, then two key metrics can be used for measuring success: adoption and added value.
In terms of your adoption, you are measuring how many users have access to the design system and how much of the system they are actually using. Again, Figma can be useful here.
For added value, you are assessing whether the teams are delivering their products faster as a result of the design system. You are also assessing the consistency of experiences when using the system, which can be hard to measure. Our recommendation here is to focus on how many times the design team intervenes or reports issues.
There isn’t a single fix for broken design systems. Issues can vary a lot. Only by applying the right scope and governance can you get to higher adoption rates and add real value to the digital ecosystem.
However, in our experience, creating an effective and well-used design system is well worth the time and effort. We’ve helped many teams get to better usage and adoption of their design systems, if you need support or would like to review your current situation, reach out to our design system experts here.
