Design Systems: Enterprise UX Evolution

Hello.Let’s talk about Design Systems!
DESIGN SYSTEMS:
ENTERPRISE UX EVOLUTION

Anne Grundhoefer
Senior UX Designer
@annegrundhoefer
Drew Loomer
Badass
@drewloomer

HOW CAN WE FIX THIS?
DESIGN SYSTEMS

http://www.multiscreen-ux-design.com (Wolfram Nagel / SETU GmbH)

“But I build applications, not
Legos…”
I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING

• Need to look and behave similarly
• Implement similar UI components
• Duplicate low-level functionality
• Must be white-labeled or themed
• Are built on diﬀerent tech stacks
• Suﬀer from visual regression bugs
A Design System will provide value if your products…
D O I N E E D A D E S I G N S Y S T E M ?

• Provide a single source of truth for building UIs
• Save time and money
• Increase consistency
• Decrease maintenance
• UX teams focus on the experience; dev teams on
implementation
• Improve user experience through well-defined
and learned behaviors
BENEFITS OF A
DESIGN SYSTEM

Salesforce’s Lightning Design System is a leader in
the space. It provides great accessibility guidelines.

U.S. Web Design Standards supplies assets and
direction for maintaining consistent experiences
across federal government websites.

IBM’s design language serves as an instructional tool
to help communicate their brand’s user interface
through many diﬀerent kinds of products.

Duolingo creates a fun and consistent education
experience across diﬀerent platforms and across
diﬀerent continents.

Intuit Harmony has a great narrative of the reasoning
behind their component designs.

Shopify’s Polaris has a well-documented public
interface (API) for each component with guidelines
and well-deﬁned conventions.

BOOTSTRAP?
WAIT… ISN’T THIS

WHY NOT?
• Those are rapid prototyping tools, not
design systems
• Their components do not consider your
unique context
• Not detailed enough
• You take power away from your
developers
• You are beholden to their timeline and
community
B O O T S T R A P O R F O U N D AT I O N

Pattern Library
UI Components, Page Templates, Reference Files
(.psd, .ai, .sketch)
Code
Coding Standards, Supported Browsers and Devices, Versioning, 
Pattern Implementation
Brand Identity
Fonts, Colors, Meaning, Visual Language,
White Labeling Logo/marketing related
Editorial Guidelines
Voice and Tone, Word List, Capitalization and
Punctuation
Foundations and Principles
Guiding Design Principles, Accessibility
Targets, Animations, Scaling, Grids

“A Design System isn't a project. It
is a product, serving products.”
A design system is not simply a style guide. It is a living thing whose value is realized only
when products successfully implement the patterns of the system.
Nathan Curtis
Design System Evangelist

• Check up to 25 components you feel are most important to include
in the first version of the design system.
• Cross out at least two sections you think are unnecessary or
unimportant for your applications.
• Add a star by up to five components that you should expect to
spend extra effort getting right.
Participants:
Identify components
with a checklist
1A simple checklist can quickly identify which
components are essential to an organization.

The cut-up gives visibility on how you are doing
things today, and the level of complexity a
component needs to accommodate.
2Cut-up components
from various interfaces
• Organize and print out screenshots from the existing site and/or
applications
• Create categorized sections (forms/buttons/navigation/etc.) based
on the component checklist
• Participants cut up each page into components, separating
components into their assigned category
• This exercise generates momentum, brings clarity, and trims fat

Before you start designing components,
you need to establish a base.
• Establish low-level design principles
• Start with color, typography, iconography, units of
measure, grids, spacing
• Align on what you are going to name each component
3Lay a solid foundation
for your components

Rebuild each of your UI components, one
at a time, from the ground up.
• Identify the smallest pieces and build from there
• Define which pieces inform others
• Write down reasons why you made certain
design decisions
4Design components
from scratch

For a design system to thrive and survive,
it needs a sufficient level of management
and organization.
• Create the order for when you are going to tackle each
component
• Schedule weekly reviews with stakeholders and
developers
• Establish long-term governance
5Work closely with
your team

THINGS TO CONSIDER
BUILDING A PATTERN LIBRARY
43

Your Software’s Context
You cannot simply design whatever you want. Take into account all
of the software you have today when designing, and frequently
refer back to the results of the component cut up for reference.
Your Users
Who are you designing for? Are your users bank tellers, auto
mechanics, grandparents? How are they accessing your software?
For how many hours a day? Remember that designers and devs are
also users of the design system.

• Modern vs. legacy web browsers
• Native/web hybrid
• Native desktop app for Mac/Windows
• Native mobile app for iOS/Android
Which devices/environments do you need
to support?
Device Support
• Mobile
• Tablet
• Desktop
• Large Screens
• 4K/Retina
• Watch
What are your responsive breakpoints?
How does that affect our component design?
Responsive

• Create flexible systems that consider the
experiences of people with disabilities from
the start
• Maintain reasonable contrast ratio between
text and background colors
• 4:5:1 for small text
• 3:1 for large text
• Use online tools
• wave.webaim.org
• colorsafe.co
• hexnaw.com
Do you need Section 508 and WCAG 2.0
compliance?
Accessibility
• Make your CSS highly configurable
• Select smart defaults by making the contrast
between colors as high as possible
• Leverage color algorithms in your CSS
preprocessor for dummy-proof color schemes
• Consider providing a Light UI or Dark UI for
diﬀerent environments
Does your experience need to be easily
themed or rebranded?
White-Label

• Nothing – the component exists but hasn’t started
• Loading – waiting for the component to render
• None – the component has initialized, but it’s empty
• One – you have some data
• Some – the ideal state for this component
• Too Many – Too many results/characters/etc.
• Incorrect/Correct – success/error
• Done – correct input has been received
Designing for all states
• Active/Hover/Focus – elements that can be interacted with

YOUR GOAL:
Enable faster and more consistent
design and development

A Design System is not an application framework and
should not be coupled to one.
Build self-contained components
• Create a prescriptive application template
• Build on or for one particular framework
DO NOT
• Focus on building long-lasting vanilla HTML/CSS/JS
• Keep your components “dumb”
• Consider all your systems
DO
Enable faster and more consistent developmentYOUR GOAL:

Provide useful assets and comprehensive documentation
of how and when to use each component in the system.
Deliver obvious value
Enable faster and more consistent developmentYOUR GOAL:
• Define required HTML structure
• Include production-ready CSS and JS
• Be semantic and accessible
• Make components configurable
• Ensure consistency

CODE STRUCTURE:
Small, conﬁgurable, and
well-documented components

Small, configurable, and well-documented components
STRUCTURE
CODE

Central
Repository
ROLL IT OUT
Ensure adoption by making your Design System
easy to consume and update.
Publish multiple ways Make it collaborative
Update frequently Ensure reliability

A design system can be a large
investment of time and money,
but it pays clear dividends.
SELLING DESIGN SYSTEMS

http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/benefits-of-ucd.html
*Benefits of User Centered Design
$1,652,400 annual savings or 21.25%time saved
Assumptions are in back up slides.
(x hrs)*($4050.00)*(48 weeks) = annual savings
100 devs
each save 2 hrs
per week
=
$388,800
annual savings*
100 devs
each save 30 min
per week
=
$97,200
annual savings*
100 devs
each save 5 hrs
per week
=
$972,000
annual savings*
100 devs
each save 1 hr
per week
=
$194,400
annual savings*
Time saved
when art direction
isn’t needed
Time saved
from rework
Time saved
when components
are compatible
Time saved
when assets
are available

adapted from an article written by Josh Clark at Big Medium
BEFORE AFTER

• Less, more productive meetings
• More alignment and collaboration
• More formalized processes
• Change in company culture to working
smarter, not harder
• Confidence that design will be
implemented correctly the first time
• Teams are less overwhelmed and not in
perpetual fire fighting mode
• Teams that are already stretched to
capacity will increase speed and quality
Dev
UX
Design
Brand
Strategy &
Insights
Digital
Marketing
Analytics
Design
System
DIGITAL TEAMS
DAY TO DAY IMPACT

Dev
UX
Design
Brand
Strategy &
Insights
Digital
Marketing
Analytics
Design
System
• Provide a single source of truth for
building UIs
• Save time and money
• Increase consistency
• Decrease maintenance
• UX teams focus on the experience, dev
teams on implementation
• Improve user experience through well-
defined and learned behaviors
DIGITAL TEAMS
BUSINESS IMPACT

Thanks! Anne Grundhoefer
@annegrundhoefer

http://www.usability.gov/what-and-why/benefits-of-ucd.html
*Benefits of User Centered Design
Hourly rate assumptions
ratio = 2:1:1 (2 offshore :1 onshore employee : 1 onshore contractor)
offshore rate = $18 x (50 devs) = $900.00 hrly
onshore FTE rate = $48 x (25 devs) = $1200.00 hrly
onshore contractor rate = $78 x (25 devs) = $1950.00 hrly
Avg hrly rate = $40.50 x 100 developers = $4050.00 hrly
Annual resource costs per 100 resources = $7,776,000
(x hrs)*($4050.00)*(48 weeks) = annual cost

Design Systems: Enterprise UX Evolution

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