— Donella Meadows, Source (YouTube)
This picture is already shown on the intro page. I repeat it because it is so important.
Every system has a particular function in order to seek a particular goal. Your design system will also produce a particular outcome, whether you define it or not. Why you should define it:
consistency
, speed
or growth
(e.g. sell cars). If you want to achieve the goal consistency
this means additional work for the product teams. This additional work is only legitimate if it contributes to the overall goal that everyone has agreed upon. This additional work must be planned in advance and the Product Owners will share their resources only if they have to.If you know your design seed, this could be also the base for a name.
— Farai Madzima, Shopify / ClarityConf 2020 (YouTube link is not public)
We did not define an overall goal. But according to a “design goal”: We found it 1 year after starting working on the design system. This might not be the right way. The teams already started working on their products without knowing the “design seed“ 🌱 – what can be quite frustrating. We only found the design seed, because we were searching for it. We searched for it because we had no base with which we could make decisions. Our design seed is: Contrast
.
— Anna Stumpf, SinnerSchrader
This kind of defined goal also allows you to measure your impact.
Tell better stories, faster.
— Yesenia Perez-Cruz, Vox Media / Source (YouTube)
The goal is not consistency, we optimise for speed of design and development.
— Raphael Guilleminot and Matt Vagni, Deliveroo / Source (YouTube)
Short term goal: Consistency Long therm goal: Quality + Productivity