Importance of a Design System

Creativity isn't valued in the business landscape. At all. That's the harsh truth. Not even after the unfortunate pandemic that forced businesses to be creative in their marketing and differentiating strategies. But that's not true, is it? If you look at any major brand, every single one of them has their Design System in place. Top-notch. And it's mainly because they truly understand the power of great design and how it affects sales.

But let's scale this down to a small to mid-size business. How can a smaller business benefit from a Design System?

‍

Save time

Hands down the most impactful perk of a comprehensive Design System. I bet you can relate to this; you need some creative work to be done and ask an agency or a freelancer to do it for you. If you don't have a Design System, it can go down two roads:

• 1. The designer asks a few generic questions and gets to work. Maybe they even check out your social media and website to get a grasp of your brand. The end result might be good, however, it rarely lands on-brand.
• 2. The designer really wants to understand what your brand is about both visually and ideologically. In this scenario, the designer might suggest a workshop where you go through your brand and current visuals. This takes time. A lot of time. Not optimal at all.

With a Design System you can just send documentation with your request for the designing agency/freelance. That's it. Now you can save time from a meaningless meeting AND get assets that are on-brand.

‍

Gets everyone on the same page

I'm going to go with a no-bullshit -answer on this one. If it's documented and everyone can get their hands on it, everyone will know what your brand is about without having a four-hour long lecture about it. Let it be a third-party agency, freelancer or an in-house team.

‍

Promotes brand consistency

I'm going to go with a no-bullshit -answer on this one as well. When design- and brand rules are documented, you can go wrong only intentionally. Consistency is the key for every brands success over time.

‍

Productivity, speed, and cost improvements

A design system will inevitably increase speed, quality, and consistency in the long run. Consistency and quality have direct impact on your brands or products image and the user experience. A great first impression makes the users and customers choose you over the competitor, and a great consistent experience makes them stay. Increased development speed also means fewer people can do more, bringing down the costs. This can have a tremendous impact on your company's bottom line while scaling.

‍

In addition, you'll look like a professional. And as much you might hate it, people today are quite superficial and will judge a business on how they look visually online.