A design system is a comprehensive set of standards, documentation, and reusable components that guide the development of digital products within an organization. It serves as a single source of truth for designers and developers, ensuring consistency and efficiency across projects. A Design system may comprise, pattern and component libraries; style guides for font, color, spacing, component dimensions, and placement; design languages, coded components, brand languages, and documentation. Design Systems aid in digital product design and development of products such as mobile applications[1] or websites.
A design system serves as a reference to establish a common understanding between design, engineering, and product teams. This understanding ensures smooth communication and collaboration between different teams involved in designing and building a product, and ultimately results in a consistent user experience.[2]
Notable design systems include Lightning Design System (by Salesforce),[3] Material Design (by Google),[4] Carbon Design System (by IBM),[5] and Fluent Design System (by Microsoft).[6]