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Campfire #49: My favorite resources for design systems

In complex projects, you'll eventually reach the point when you consider establishing a design system. In this post, I want to share some helpful tools for developing a successful design system that works for you and your team.

Alex Dovhyi
Alex Dovhyi
6 min read
Campfire #49: My favorite resources for design systems

Over the last 4 years I’ve been working with design systems for enterprise companies extensively.

In complex projects, you'll eventually reach the point when you consider establishing a design system. In this post, I want to share some helpful tools for developing a successful design system that works for you and your team.

Getting started with design systems

Design systems: A beginner’s guide to building one that will last | Webflow Blog
What is a design system, how do you build one, and what should you consider during the process? We explore.
Building a design system — where to start? (Part 1 — first things first)
Colour, space and typography — these elements are the building blocks for a solid design system. But, first things first…
A Recipe For A Good Design System — Smashing Magazine
Maintaining a design system is a lot of work. In this article, Atila Fassina shares his lessons learned and how a platform such as Backlight can help put together a series of tools to speed up your architecture setup.

Design audit

Auditing our design system
This post is the first in a series to document the challenges and joys of organizing and implementing a design system for Customer.io. If…
Why do you need a design audit for your design system and how to conduct one?
In the last article I briefly mentioned about design audit, so today I would like to dive deeper and tell you more about it and why you…
Auditing as a First Step to Design Systems Planning
Performing an audit is an important first step in planning a design system. Read the process of decomping a website to identify and organize elements for future use.

Structuring a design system

4 Popular Approaches for Structuring Design Systems
2018 was the year of design systems, there was not a single day without news and not a single month without several new tools that are…
Design System Structure
Design systems structure contains pattern library and style guide with their components in this chapter

Design tokens

Design Tokens — a Design System Superpower!
Design Tokens, though it has been in the industry for a while, it’s only recently that it has picked up the pace. Most of the design…
Design tokens for dummies
What are design tokens? What role do they play in a design system? How can you use them ?

Team collaboration

Design system collaboration: 5 tips for designers & developers
Design systems forge a link between the creative expertise of designers and the technical proficiency of developers. Learn what teams can do to achieve successful design system collaboration.
Design systems are ecosystems for collaboration
Defining the parts of a Design System and the 5 questions to drive development efforts forward

Documentation

Design System Documentation in 9 Easy Steps
Design Systems need documentation. Read this quick step-by-step guide that will tell you exactly what to do to document your design system.
Streamlining Your Design System Documentation in Figma with ChatGPT and Figma Plugins
Maximizing Productivity with Figma Plugins and ChatGPT for creating Design System Documentation
How to document your design system components
Writing good documentation is difficult, and it is even more challenging to make your documentation attractive. But without documentation, your design system is only a component library. So what are the best ways to write good documentation and ensure people read it?

Metrics

How To Measure the Success of Your Design System
It’s not enough to throw together guidelines, styles and patterns. Only by building and maintaining your design system the right way will you reap benefits.
How to measure your design system?
Why measuring your design system is more important than you think, and why measuring sooner rather than later is imperative.
How can the efficiency of design system be measured?
How can the efficiency of design system be measured?
Measuring the Impact of a Design System
Visualising the positive impact on the work of a team of UI engineers, by the adoption of a design system.

Adoption

How to measure design system adoption
Automated tracking of token and component adoption
How Pinterest’s design systems team measures adoption
The Gestalt team tells us how they used Figma’s REST API to create FigStats, a dashboard for visualizing component usage.
Design System Adoption Insights | Knapsack
We surveyed over 100 design system managers and contributors to better understand the challenges they’re facing around adoption. Here are 5 of the top insights that the survey revealed.
Treat your design system as a product. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
CampfireDesign Systems

Alex Dovhyi Twitter

Product designer exploring design’s interplay with product, business, and technology, and answering your questions about freelancing, career, and personal growth.

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