Design system: The basis for a consistent design

JONATHAN LAINEZ
Your Host
• Ortusian since 2020
• Passionate UX/UI designer
• I started as and front-end developer
• Creating intuitive and visually appealing
digital experiences.
• Problem solving
• Hyperactive
Senior Designer at Ortus Solutions Corp.
jelainez jlainezsv

Design System
The basis for a consistent design
LED BY
Jonathan Lainez

Purpose of this session:
Establish the importance of
visual consistency in design
and how a Design System
can help.

How do we ensure that our brand and
products offer a consistent experience?
Implementing strategies and practices that guarantee
uniformity at all points of contact with users.
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Why is important?
• Increases user confidence.
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Visual Consistency

Why is important?
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• Facilitates navigation and
understanding.
Visual Consistency

Why is important?
• Reinforces the brand identity.
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• Generate a memorable
experience.
Impact on the Brand

Design Systems
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What is a Design System?
• Fonts
• Colors
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It is a structured set of reusable design elements, guidelines and rules
that provides a consistent foundation for product development and
design, ensuring visual consistency and efficiency throughout the process.
• UI Components
• Tokens

What is a Design System for?
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To build high-quality user
interfaces from a well-considered
set of reusable components.

Benefits of a Design System
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• Use of predefined components.
• Avoid reinventing the
wheel on each project.
Efficiency in Design & Development:
• Facilitates communication
between designers and
developers.
• Establish a common
foundation.
Improved Collaboration:

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Consistency: Across all design elements, from colors to interface
components.
1
Development efficiency: Development teams can work more efficiently by not
having to reinvent the wheel every time new functionality is added.
2
Collaboration: Facilitates collaboration between design and development
teams by providing a common base of design elements and rules. This is
especially important in large organizations with distributed teams.
3

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Scalability: Provides the structure needed to effectively scale design
and development as a project grows.
4
Sustainable maintenance: Simplifies long-term maintenance by allowing
centralized changes and updates to propagate consistently throughout the
system.
5
Improved user experience: Contributes to a more positive and predictable user
experience through consistent and familiar presentation, which can improve
user retention.
6

Do I need a Design System?
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Do I need a Design System?
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Let's define the two paths where a DS could go:
A quick way where we build exactly what we need for a single
product.
1
A more robust structure that works for several products.
2

Where to start?
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Nathan Curtis put it this way:
Design systems are
systems of systems
Nathan Curtis: Founder of EightShapes and designer, engineer, leader, author and
speaker on the topic of design systems in digital product development.

DS: A system of systems
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It includes elements such as colors, fonts,
iconography and other visual elements that
maintain aesthetic coherence throughout the
user interface.
Visual Design System
It consists of a set of reusable components,
such as buttons, forms, cards, etc., with rules
and guidelines for their implementation and
consistent use.
UI Component System
Defines guidelines and principles for user
interaction with the interface, such as
animations, transitions, and specific
behaviors.
Interaction System
It includes detailed documentation that
describes how to use and apply the
elements of the design system, as well as
tutorials and examples to facilitate
implementation.
Documentation System
The organization of space is key to every
great design. Spatial systems, grids, and
layouts provide rules that give your designs
a consistent rhythm, constrain decision
making, and help teams stay aligned.
Space, grids, and layouts

DS: A system of systems
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• Design Tokens
• Typographic System
• Color System
• Icon Set
Visual Design System
These subsystems come together to
help build high-quality user interfaces
from a well-considered set of reusable
components.
Each of the systems could evolve until it has
systems within it

Tokens System
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• A marketing website
• A web application
• An Android application
• An iOS app
For accessibility reasons you decide to
change a color, the primary brand color.
Let's imagine that your company has many
interfaces and many platforms to maintain:
How many time will gonna take you?
How can yo guarantee you changed in all
the places were used?

Tokens System
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In 2015, Spotify made changes to its
image and consequently updated its
brand guidelines. It took them several
months to spread the new green color on
all their platforms.
Applying a new color on multiple platforms shouldn't take months...

Tokens System
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Now, thanks to the foundation of their design system based on
design tokens, it would only take them a few minutes.

Tokens System
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The purpose of tokens is to improve:
• Development efficiency
• Collaboration between teams
• Ability to adapt and evolve over time.

5 pillars of the
Design System
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Sale
Research
Design
Construction
Maintenance

Sale
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Regardless of who the client is (the person or team that will or will not accept the
DS) you must have established the problem to which it will provide a solution.
• Discover what exists and understand the
expectations of the system.
• Collaborate with colleagues, users
(developers + designers), and sponsors.
Initial Investigation
• Evaluate the current component landscape.
• Conduct enough research to understand
the problem and propose solutions.
Technical analysis
• Develop value proposition and define the
scope of the design system.
• Identify resources necessary to achieve
objectives.
Preparation for Presentation

Research
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• Analyze the current design in the organization to
identify strengths and weaknesses.
• Determine consistency and coherence in the use
of design elements.
Current State Assessment
• Maintain conversations with development teams,
designers and key stakeholders.
• Explore current expectations, challenges, and
experiences with design systems.
Collaboration and Interviews
• Perform a detailed audit of existing visual
components.
• Evaluate consistency in the application of colors,
typography, and other design elements.
Component and Design Audit
• Analyze other design systems to identify best
practices.
• Identify improvement opportunities based on
industry standards.
Competition Investigation
• Evaluate the current technical infrastructure and
its ability to implement a design system.
• Consider how the system will integrate with
existing technologies.
Technical analysis
• Identify the specific components and resources
that will be included in the system.
• Define the project scope and expected
deliverables, such as design libraries and
roadmaps.
Determination of Scope and Deliverables

Design
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Finding the optimal balance between reduced components and improved functionality.
Start incrementally to avoid initial complexity.

Construction
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• Create design components, such as buttons,
cards, forms, etc., according to established
specifications.
Component Development
• Apply defined tokens, such as colors, fonts, and
white space, to maintain visual consistency
across all components.
Token Implementation
• Perform extensive testing to ensure that
components behave as expected in different
situations and platforms.
Testing and Validation
• Develop detailed documentation that describes
how to use each component, including examples,
style guides, and possibly sample code.
• Documentation frameworks:
• The current code
• Interactive demos (storybook)
• A documentation system to add our
explanations (zeroheight)
Documentation Creation
• Provide training to development and design
teams on how to use the design system
effectively and encourage its adoption.
Training and Adoption

Maintenance
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• Perform regular updates to add new features,
improve performance.
Continuous Update
• Establish a monitoring and feedback collection
system to evaluate how components are
implemented and used in final products.
Monitoring and Feedback
• Keep design system documentation up to date,
accurately reflecting available components and
providing clear usage examples.
Updated Documentation
• Perform extensive testing to ensure functionality
and compatibility across various environments,
browsers, and devices.
Rigorous Testing
• Encourage continuous collaboration between
development, design, and product teams to
address emerging issues and discuss potential
improvements.
Active Collaboration

Conclusion
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The reason for a Design System is to simplify the
construction of other products, specifically user interfaces.

Design system: The basis for a consistent design

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