Falling in love with a Design System

Butterflies in his stomach

The Design System said yes, flattered by the attention she was getting from this front-end developer. On their first date, the developer was full of questions - he wanted to know everything about the Design System! She had a big personality and wasn’t shy when it came to talking abouting herself. The Design System told the developer that she was a digital guide to brand identity. In other words, a brand’s reference library, bringing together principles, visuals, and components of reusable code so that any type of digital interface, like a specialist application, e-commerce site or other company website, could be developed consistently. The Design System is a whole ecosystem aimed at designers and developers of digital products and services.

The longer the conversation went on, the more the developer could see a future with the Design System, a world of new possibilities. This guide would enable him to manage design without a hiccup in his future projects. Make development easier. Reduce design debt, and technical debt too. The Design System offered a certain comfort, brought stability in the long term The developer even imagined a whole range of connected projects he could keep adding for his client, with all the color variables and font styles that would be passed on to future web components. His bond with the Design System grew stronger.
 

The honeymoon phase

At the start of their story, everything was perfect. They were living on cloud nine together. The developer was delighted to discover how easy adaptation was with the Design System; for each new project, even if the technology was different, the Design System never failed him. She gave him solid support that allowed him to guarantee consistency between all digital materials and foster a coordinated omnichannel strategy. Whether the developer was working on a web project or a mobile app, nothing changed! He took his components from the same places with the right design. If he needed a title component, he just had to import it and that was it - job done! Consistency, reliability, and simplicity were the main strengths of the relationship.
 

Trouble in paradise

Everything went without a hitch until the day they decided to move in together. Their first fight broke out when they found out about each other’s bad habits. The developer was shocked to learn about the cost of the Design System and all the attention she needed. Behind her charming front, full of promises to help people save time and effort, she was actually a diva! While setting up required time, refactoring the new components for the Design System took up even more time. It was a lot to ask... The developer had to go back over all of his files to replace  existing components with new ones imported from his beloved Design System.   
 

In the end, they got married and lived happily ever after

This story, like all love stories, had its ups and downs, but things looked up in the end! It is important to learn to live together. Despite the developer's initial surprise after moving in with his beloved, the Design System saved him previous time in the long-term. Because once they had gotten past this stage, the hardest part was over, and the road ahead was clear. After all, the Design System enabled them to make their projects more stable and easier to maintain. If they ever want to change the design as trends evolve, they just need to update their variables and their components, and it’s sorted! The project will be updated automatically.

The developer has admitted  that the Design System’s lack of jealousy is one of her qualities; and what's more, she can adapt to any project. That’s how they have become inseparable!
 

As soon as they met, the developer instinctively knew that he couldn’t continue to carry out projects without being teamed up with the Design System for life. And as a certain scribe said in the movie Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra: "when you have a taste for things well done, for beautiful gestures, sometimes you don't find the contact person in front of you, the mirror that helps you move forward,” and now the developer can say that he has found his mirror, his other half. So what we need to remember from this story is that you need to make concessions and put in a lot of effort at the start of your projects.

Today the characters in this story are moving forward hand-in-hand, from project to project and client to client.  They share the same vision for the future. The Design System embodies current design trends while bringing future changes to her components.

I believe every developer should be able to experience a harmonious relationship like this one. So if I were to leave you with one key message it would be: don’t think twice about marrying a Design System, it’s a union you won’t regret!