2. Design System Basics
2.1 What is a design system?
Design System Basics · Section 2.1
A design system is a set of standards, reusable assets, components, rules, and processes used to create consistent product experiences at scale.
A strong design system provides a shared answer to questions such as:
- Which color should represent danger?
- What spacing should exist between a label and an input?
- How should a modal trap keyboard focus?
- What is the standard empty state?
- Which button is primary?
- What is the correct radius for cards?
- How do we support dark mode?
- How do designers and engineers refer to the same component?
- When should a component be deprecated?
- How are breaking changes released?
The key idea is shared decisions.
Without a system, every product team repeatedly makes the same decisions.
With a system, many of those decisions are made once and reused.