No matter the size of your company/product figuring out where too start can be a real problem. It was for me anyway. So here’s somethings I did that helped me kick start implementing a Design system.
Put together an IA of your system
This will help you understand all the different elements from a high level. Some items can sit outside your system. Here is an example of a digital design system where the brand styles sit outside the system because they have to be used for print as well.
Limit the amount of tools you’re going to use
Less tools, less problems. It’s all well and good to use a DSM and other tools to categorise your system but for me too many tools was getting in the way of building out the system. Once the system is built out with a limited amount of tools you can then start embedding a DSM. For example: the latest design system I built only uses Sketch cloud. This allows me to limit the amount of touch points for all designers.
“Less tools, less problems.”Create processes and stick to them
There are always new ways of doing things. Part of researching design systems means you’ll be discovering so many different ways to do the same thing. If you start trying to implement to many different styles you wont make any progress.
Every product is different
Make it work for you! Every product/business/corporation will need a different combination of processes, systems and rules.
“Make it work for you!”Here are some good places to start:
