Design system as a collaboration tool for better user experience

I just watched the video chat between Didier Chincholle and Dez Blanchfield from last week. They are discussing design systems, award winning design and how design systems are related to business. For me, there is a couple of main takeaways from this video.  

• It is hot! - More businesses invest in design, create their own design systems and establish their take on the design thinking approach. I very much believe design systems to be a clear trend now. One sign of this trend is to look at the acquisitions and investments the traditional management consultancy and IT consultancy firms has invested in creative agencies with design thinking as their specialty. User centricity, prototyping and iterating are musts when delivering experience. Nobody today can afford to disregard an audience’s needs and expectations.

• Walk the talk! - A design system has to be designed as a product! Focus on the people that will use the design system, meet or exceed the expectations of the audience or as Didier is phrasing it “A design system is a living system. If you do not feed the audience with what they need, the system will die.” A design system is more than a static repository. It is a collaboration platform where users share their feedback to the design system team and eventually contribute back through design and code contributions. 

• Win win! - Design systems adding speed to the development process, lowering the cost and create a consistent experience across service provider and user touch points if it is done the right way. Create guidelines, and guide people how to create a consistent experience across all touch points. If you do this right, you will create momentum. You will deliver coherence experiences better, easier, faster.

• Award-winning! - If you missed the award-winning Ericsson Design System and is interested to know more about it, start with this short video or read more on this blog post