How to make a design system (without losing your soul)
New technology can bring widespread benefits for everyone. But only if the impacts are intentionally designed in tandem with the technology itself. Design systems are no different. The key to creating new tools and processes that multiply teams instead of reducing them is empathy.
Design systems can elevate teams of designers and developers to new levels of productivity and innovation. They can play a part in the sunrise of new ways of working and collaborating between different disciplines. With a strong system, teams will spend less time making wheels, and more time rethinking transportation. We can shine light on new ways of working.
But systems can also bring anxiety if new technology leads to team reduction instead of multiplication. We might unintentionally cause a sunset of free expression or even specific roles if our blinders are on.
It isn’t enough to make a design system. Systems teams need to examine impacts and work for the growth of all people involved.
Common fear and friction 😱
Throughout history, innovation has always resulted in greater disparity. Unless designed and planned intentionally, the majority of workers find themselves with less opportunity and harsher living conditions in the wake of invention.
Let’s look at a couple examples to illustrate. The cotton gin greatly improved the rate of production in the cotton industry, but also gave more power to plantation owners which increased oppression and demand for the slave trade. Likewise, the steam engine brought great advances, but also demanded massive amounts of coal which was met by child labor in the harshest of working conditions.
This has become a pattern throughout history, and is a big concern when it comes to AI. If humans don’t consider the impacts on those without a voice in the laboratory, their brilliance will bring equal portions of wealth and ruin.
“In fact, a thousand years of history and contemporary evidence make one thing abundantly clear: there is nothing automatic about new technologies bringing widespread prosperity. Whether they do or not is an economic, social, and political choice.”
— Daron Acemoğlu, Power and Progress
Design systems are technology and need to be developed with potential negative impacts in mind. Design system makers have a unique responsibility to craft tools and policies to build consuming teams up. Let’s take a look at some common fear teams face as systems form…
Fear 1: Design systems stifle creativity
Systems exist to capture and organize decisions in a cohesive fashion. The goal is to make a decision once and demonstrate the broader impacts of changing past decisions. To consuming teams, a strong system might feel like less freedom and more structure.
Color is a great example. For designers especially, we grow up and cut our teeth learning color theory and the psychology behind color to more effectively create graphics, sites and printed materials. Then, we move in to the world of branding and decisions are given guard rails. And now we work with a strong system and color is no longer a choice in 95% of our daily work. We’ve moved from a wide-open palette to something called tokens that looks suspiciously like code.
What happens to the artists and innovators?
Fear 2: Design systems help companies do more with less
Emphasis on the less. The fear here is that design systems enable efficiency and make it possible to reduce the workforce and still get the same amount of features. The factory produces faster with better process, tools and equipment.
What happens to the humans?
Fear 3: Design systems make some disciplines obsolete
Color is codified and the building blocks are standardized. Decisions are captured and time spent decisioning on many things is reduced. Structures like design tokens can reduce chaos, but they can also reduce visual design decisions to a formula. A big part of what designers and front end developers went to school for is no longer their day job. It can be uncomfortable when systems thinking becomes a higher priority than color theory, but I promise it’s an opportunity.
What happens to that ol’ skill set?
Soul-saving systems 😇
Well, now that that’s all out there on the table, let’s look closer to find a positive way forward. I’m an eyes-open optimist. I understand the concerns and have felt them myself as an adopter of systems. But I also see what’s possible. In order to create systems that address fear and bring all the good benefits to the broadest audience possible, these mindsets have proven helpful. Many of these ideas come from reflection after trying to attack problems without first seeking to understand. And not surprisingly, these approaches work for making any type of products.
Start with empathy
From the very beginning, the team must understand the people they serve. What painpoints does your audience face on a daily basis? How do they define success or measure themselves? What would be most helpful and valuable? What do they think and feel throughout their work? Before making solutions, we need to understand the problems that need solving.
In my team, we examine problems with tools like jobs to be done, journey mapping and good ol’ fashioned interviews. The natural reaction for most teams is to jump in and start taking action. These activities need to be intentionally planned or they won’t happen. It’s also helpful to frame these activities up as action by defining deliverables which might look like synthesis documents or output refined by the team. Refining together is a great way to unite and build empathy together.
Understand your business context
Build awareness on top of a deeper understanding of your audience. Build it in all directions including upwards. Bridges need to be built horizontally to understand system users and grow adoption. Ladders need to be built vertically to understand the big picture goals of the organization and to get executive sponsorship. Before sponsorship can happen, we need to connect system goals with business objectives. Lean on your friends for this to get insight about executives from other disciplines. No one can wear all the hats!
Keep empathy going
Once a solid understanding is established, the team can start moving in the right direction. As things are made, they need to be validated which will also build up empathy in the team. Libraries need to be tested for easy use. Documentation needs to be validated for easy reading. Code needs to be pressure tested to avoid multiplying tech debt. Make validation and empathy building a consistent step in the process that the whole team touches.
If adoption is a struggle, go deep and find out why. If teams are detaching Figma assets at record levels, it could mean what we made is too complicated or missing key features. If developers aren’t updating to the latest versions, we may have introduced unintentional friction or conflicts. No matter what, the explanation of these symptoms is pure gold.
Make it a team sport
When it comes to making a system that get’s used, it’s crucial to find the people who are willing to become partners. Find the folks who want to go deeper with systems. Personally invest the time to help them build up their own skills and seek to learn their insights on how things could be better. Share templates and tools to help them level up.
In my team, this happens naturally as our teammates connect more broadly with folks through random conversations and also through our support channels. We keep our support channels visible to the whole organization so that more folks can help and the answers are findable. It holds us accountable to provide good support, and it also makes space for our community to get involved.
End with empathy
I know, I know; I need a thesaurus. Enough with this empathy word. But it needs to be in the roots, trunk and branches of the system. Spend time with people to understand their experience day to day. Learn from others to guide future vision and roadmaps. Keep the connection alive to validate your strategy.
Make better work easier
Tech advances do not need to result in disparity and disadvantage. Let’s return to the history of tech advances in Power and Progress. The automobile was an example of a new technology that brought wide-spread benefits to almost everyone. In addition to benefitting the founders, innovators and investors, the automobile created new jobs, skills and opportunities for workers. It changed the shape of cities and created better mobility for more people at all income levels whether through ownership or public transit.
Design systems can do the same thing for product teams, as long as they’re shaped with all people in mind. If organizations prioritize lifting their workforce up, we’ll see more designers and developers advancing their craft, growing their impact and even changing disciplines and founding new companies. If we use empathy as our foundation, design system teams can play a major role in positive change for many people, instead of just the few.
