A practical checklist for design systems

The gap between knowing this and actually doing it is where most teams lose ground. Run through this the next time design systems comes up.

The measurable part of design is whether people can find what they came for and act on it without hesitating. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

The checklist

• A shared component set stops every page reinventing the same button
• Tokens for colour, spacing, and type keep decisions consistent
• The system pays for itself around the third or fourth page
• Someone is named as the owner
• There is a date to review it again

Why this earns attention

A shared component set stops every page reinventing the same button. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. The failure mode is not doing it wrong, it is doing it once and assuming it stays done.

The short version

Consistency is the quiet half of design work: it rarely gets complimented, and its absence is noticed immediately. Three things worth confirming about design systems before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• The system pays for itself around the third or fourth page — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.