Development
Development
Development
How to create a lean design system
How to create a lean design system
How to create a lean design system
In recent years, Design Systems have become the quintessential tool for bringing product development teams together.
In recent years, Design Systems have become the quintessential tool for bringing product development teams together.
In recent years, Design Systems have become the quintessential tool for bringing product development teams together.
September 29, 2022
September 29, 2022
September 29, 2022
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}Written by Mark Boyes-Smith, Director of Product Design at InVision.
With the conversation around Design Systems maturing, I’m interested in understanding how we might adopt a lean mindset when creating design systems.
In this article, I want to share 4 principles and exercises that have helped me and my team create a Lean Design System.
The superpowers of Design Systems
As a single source of truth for design intent, Design Systems help creative and technical teams speak a common language and deliver user experiences that feel connected, familiar, and cohesive.
With this shared language, teams can move quickly, onboard new team members, and curate reusable building blocks of UI to support product development at scale. Successful teams can even harness Design Systems to reduce design fragmentation and technical debt across an ecosystem.
Sounds magical, right? 🦄
Well… In order to harness these benefits, there is a price to be paid. Establishing a Design System requires upfront and ongoing investment, both financially and culturally. This represents a luxury many teams can’t afford.
Even for businesses with established Design Systems, I consistently see challenges around low adoption and engagement as Design System teams battle to balance building for scale and experimenting at speed. When speed is a top priority, convincing consumers to invest precious time engaging with an emerging system can be a little difficult to justify. The result is a Design System that doesn’t solve the needs of the business.
If you’re nodding along, fear not — there is a way forward!
Applying a lean mindset to Design Systems
This approach takes inspiration from the Lean Thinking Methodology.
Put simply, to be lean is to put just enough effort in the right activities to unlock the benefits. If you are familiar with Pareto’s principle, the most impactful 20% of jobs to be done will reap 80% of the benefits.
A Lean Design System optimizes activities to maximize impact against the most pressing business challenges, for example:
Establishing a source of truth
Speeding up design and development
Creating a cohesive user experience
Creating a shared language between designers, engineers, and content writers
Written by Mark Boyes-Smith, Director of Product Design at InVision.
With the conversation around Design Systems maturing, I’m interested in understanding how we might adopt a lean mindset when creating design systems.
In this article, I want to share 4 principles and exercises that have helped me and my team create a Lean Design System.
The superpowers of Design Systems
As a single source of truth for design intent, Design Systems help creative and technical teams speak a common language and deliver user experiences that feel connected, familiar, and cohesive.
With this shared language, teams can move quickly, onboard new team members, and curate reusable building blocks of UI to support product development at scale. Successful teams can even harness Design Systems to reduce design fragmentation and technical debt across an ecosystem.
Sounds magical, right? 🦄
Well… In order to harness these benefits, there is a price to be paid. Establishing a Design System requires upfront and ongoing investment, both financially and culturally. This represents a luxury many teams can’t afford.
Even for businesses with established Design Systems, I consistently see challenges around low adoption and engagement as Design System teams battle to balance building for scale and experimenting at speed. When speed is a top priority, convincing consumers to invest precious time engaging with an emerging system can be a little difficult to justify. The result is a Design System that doesn’t solve the needs of the business.
If you’re nodding along, fear not — there is a way forward!
Applying a lean mindset to Design Systems
This approach takes inspiration from the Lean Thinking Methodology.
Put simply, to be lean is to put just enough effort in the right activities to unlock the benefits. If you are familiar with Pareto’s principle, the most impactful 20% of jobs to be done will reap 80% of the benefits.
A Lean Design System optimizes activities to maximize impact against the most pressing business challenges, for example:
Establishing a source of truth
Speeding up design and development
Creating a cohesive user experience
Creating a shared language between designers, engineers, and content writers
Written by Mark Boyes-Smith, Director of Product Design at InVision.
With the conversation around Design Systems maturing, I’m interested in understanding how we might adopt a lean mindset when creating design systems.
In this article, I want to share 4 principles and exercises that have helped me and my team create a Lean Design System.
The superpowers of Design Systems
As a single source of truth for design intent, Design Systems help creative and technical teams speak a common language and deliver user experiences that feel connected, familiar, and cohesive.
With this shared language, teams can move quickly, onboard new team members, and curate reusable building blocks of UI to support product development at scale. Successful teams can even harness Design Systems to reduce design fragmentation and technical debt across an ecosystem.
Sounds magical, right? 🦄
Well… In order to harness these benefits, there is a price to be paid. Establishing a Design System requires upfront and ongoing investment, both financially and culturally. This represents a luxury many teams can’t afford.
Even for businesses with established Design Systems, I consistently see challenges around low adoption and engagement as Design System teams battle to balance building for scale and experimenting at speed. When speed is a top priority, convincing consumers to invest precious time engaging with an emerging system can be a little difficult to justify. The result is a Design System that doesn’t solve the needs of the business.
If you’re nodding along, fear not — there is a way forward!
Applying a lean mindset to Design Systems
This approach takes inspiration from the Lean Thinking Methodology.
Put simply, to be lean is to put just enough effort in the right activities to unlock the benefits. If you are familiar with Pareto’s principle, the most impactful 20% of jobs to be done will reap 80% of the benefits.
A Lean Design System optimizes activities to maximize impact against the most pressing business challenges, for example:
Establishing a source of truth
Speeding up design and development
Creating a cohesive user experience
Creating a shared language between designers, engineers, and content writers
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