A design system is much more than just a collection of visual elements. It’s a complete toolkit that helps teams create consistent, high-quality digital products efficiently. In this blog, we’ll explore each part of a design system in plain English, explaining why each component matters and how they work together.
1. Style Guide: The Visual Foundation
The style guide is the visual rulebook that defines how your brand looks across all platforms and materials.
What’s Included:
Brand Identity Elements
- Logo specifications (sizes, spacing, variations)
- Color palette (primary, secondary, accent colors with their color codes)
- Typography (font families, sizes, weights, and line heights)
- Iconography (style, sizes, usage guidelines)
- Photography and illustration guidelines
- Voice and tone for written content
Why It Matters: A style guide ensures visual consistency, which helps users recognize and trust your brand. It answers questions like “Which blue should I use?” or “How large should this heading be?” so designers don’t have to make these decisions repeatedly.
Real-World Example: Uber’s style guide defines their distinctive black and white color scheme with bright accent colors, clear typography rules, and specific guidance for their recognizable icon style.
2. UI Kit: The Building Blocks
A UI kit contains all the reusable interface components that make up your digital products.
What’s Included:
Basic Components
- Buttons (primary, secondary, ghost, with all their states)
- Form elements (text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns)
- Navigation elements (menus, tabs, breadcrumbs)
- Cards and containers
- Modals and dialogs
- Feedback indicators (notifications, alerts, progress bars)
Complex Components
- Date pickers
- Data tables
- Search interfaces
- Media players
- Navigation drawers
Why It Matters: A UI kit eliminates the need to redesign common elements for every project. It ensures that buttons, forms, and other interface elements look and behave consistently across your product.
Real-World Example: Google’s Material Design UI kit provides ready-to-use components that follow their design principles, from simple buttons to complex card layouts, all designed to work together seamlessly.
3. Code Components: The Functional Implementation
Code components are the developer-friendly versions of UI kit elements, built with actual programming languages.
What’s Included:
- Frontend framework components (React, Vue, Angular, etc.)
- CSS libraries or design tokens
- Animation specifications
- Interactive behaviors and states
- Accessibility implementations
- Responsive behavior
Why It Matters: Code components bridge the gap between design and development. They ensure that what looks good in design actually works well in the final product. They save developers from having to code the same elements repeatedly and reduce inconsistencies that arise from multiple implementations.
Real-World Example: Salesforce’s Lightning Design System includes fully functional code components for their UI elements, complete with accessibility features and responsive behaviors built in.
4. Design Principles: The Guiding Philosophy
Design principles are the fundamental ideas and values that guide all design decisions within your product.
What’s Included:
- Core values (like “user-centered” or “accessible first”)
- Decision-making frameworks
- Experience standards
- Design philosophy statements
- Do’s and don’ts for common scenarios
Why It Matters: Design principles help teams make consistent decisions when faced with new challenges. They provide guidance when the style guide or UI kit doesn’t cover a specific situation.
Real-World Example: Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines include principles like “Clarity,” “Deference,” and “Depth” that guide all their design decisions and help maintain a consistent experience across their products.
5. Documentation: The Knowledge Base
Documentation explains how to use all parts of the design system properly.
What’s Included:
- Component usage guidelines
- Implementation examples
- Best practices
- Common patterns
- Do’s and don’ts
- Copy guidelines
- Accessibility requirements
- Edge cases and exceptions
Why It Matters: Even the best components are useless if people don’t know when and how to use them. Documentation turns a collection of elements into a usable system by providing context and guidance.
Real-World Example: Atlassian’s Design System documentation includes detailed usage examples, code snippets, and clear explanations for when to use each component.
6. Governance Process: The Evolution Framework
The governance process defines how the design system grows and changes over time.
What’s Included:
- Team roles and responsibilities
- Contribution guidelines
- Decision-making processes
- Version control procedures
- Feedback channels
- Release schedules
- Deprecation policies
Why It Matters: Without good governance, design systems become outdated or bloated. A governance process ensures the system remains useful and relevant as products evolve.
Real-World Example: IBM’s Carbon Design System has a clear governance model with designated maintainers, contribution guidelines, and a structured process for proposing and implementing changes.
7. Resources & Tools: The Supporting Environment
Resources and tools help teams implement and maintain the design system efficiently.
What’s Included:
- Design files (Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD)
- Asset libraries
- Design tokens
- Plugins and extensions
- Templates and starters
- Testing tools
- Version history
Why It Matters: The right tools make a design system easier to adopt and maintain. They reduce friction in workflows and help ensure the system is actually used.
Real-World Example: Shopify’s Polaris design system includes Figma libraries, React component packages, and various tools that help designers and developers implement the system in their daily work.
How All These Parts Work Together
A comprehensive design system is more than the sum of its parts. Here’s how everything connects:
- Design principles inform the creation of the style guide
- The style guide establishes visual standards for the UI kit
- The UI kit components are implemented as code components
- Documentation explains how to use everything properly
- The governance process ensures everything evolves cohesively
- Resources and tools make implementation smooth and efficient
When all these elements work together, teams can create consistent, high-quality products much more efficiently than when working from scratch.
Real-World Benefits of a Complete Design System
Companies that implement comprehensive design systems see tangible benefits:
- Airbnb reduced design inconsistencies and sped up development with their DLS (Design Language System)
- Spotify improved team collaboration and product quality with their Encore Design System
- Microsoft unified their product ecosystem with Fluent Design
Getting Started with Your Own Design System
Building a complete design system is a significant undertaking, but you don’t have to do everything at once:
- Start with core style guide elements (colors, typography)
- Add your most frequently used UI components
- Create basic documentation for these elements
- Establish a simple governance process
- Expand gradually based on team needs
Remember that a design system is a living product that requires ongoing maintenance. The most successful systems evolve alongside the products they support.
Conclusion
A complete design system combines visual standards, reusable components, functional code, clear guidance, and structured governance to create a powerful toolkit for product teams. When properly implemented, it leads to better user experiences, faster development cycles, and more consistent brand presentation.
By understanding each component and how they work together, you can build or adopt a design system that truly serves your team’s needs and helps create exceptional digital products.