·1 min read
Design Systems Are Overrated Until They Are Not
designdevelopment
I have built three design systems. Two of them were abandoned within six months.
The first one was a textbook exercise. Tokens, components, documentation, the works. It was beautiful in Figma. Nobody used it because the developers did not understand the naming conventions and the designers kept designing around it.
The second one was too opinionated. It made certain things easy and everything else impossible. When the product requirements changed, the design system became a cage.
The third one worked because it started with the code, not the Figma file. It grew from actual patterns in the codebase, not from theoretical component taxonomies. It was ugly in Figma. It was loved in code.
A design system is not a component library. It is a shared language. And languages evolve from usage, not from specifications.
The first one was a textbook exercise. Tokens, components, documentation, the works. It was beautiful in Figma. Nobody used it because the developers did not understand the naming conventions and the designers kept designing around it.
The second one was too opinionated. It made certain things easy and everything else impossible. When the product requirements changed, the design system became a cage.
The third one worked because it started with the code, not the Figma file. It grew from actual patterns in the codebase, not from theoretical component taxonomies. It was ugly in Figma. It was loved in code.
A design system is not a component library. It is a shared language. And languages evolve from usage, not from specifications.