Having a design system checklist is a fantastic way to ensure consistency, efficiency, and alignment in digital product teams. This checklist will help you and other stakeholders align on essential components and processes, leading to a cohesive and user-friendly experience across all digital products. Here’s how we build our checklist.
1. Brand
Here we are looking for the existant branding guidelines in order to define the visual and tonal identity of the company, ensuring that all design elements are consistent with the brand’s values and personality. We are looking for guidelines for logos, colors, typography, voice and tone and terminology. Setting clear brand standards ensures that every component reflects the company’s identity and resonates with users.
2. Foundations
Foundations set the groundwork for all design decisions by establishing core elements like colors, typography, icons and spacing. Here, we want to define our main fonts, our color palette, set an icon library (optional), picture ratios and define our base unit for spacing. We also want to guarantee that every core element meets accessibility standards. Don't forget that's also the right time to define all your variables.
3. Components
Components are the building blocks that designers and developers use to create user interfaces like buttons or forms. Important aspects to consider are to follow design system best practice and name components the right way. The Figma layers should also be named correctly. Ensure that you are using the last and best features from Figma like Auto Layout, Variants and connect with your Variables. And don't forget to make components responsive so it will adapt to all your viewports.
4. Documentation
Documentation is the single source of truth for how to use and implement the design system effectively. It includes comprehensive descriptions, usage examples, code snippets, and accessibility guidelines for each component. Proper documentation ensures that designers, developers, and other stakeholders have a clear understanding of how to apply the design system, making it easier to maintain consistency and keep the system up-to-date as it evolves.
5. Process
The Process section outlines how the design system is maintained, governed, and updated over time. It defines roles, responsibilities, and workflows for version control, component updates, and feedback loops. This part ensures that the design system remains a living resource that adapts to new needs and technologies, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement to keep the system relevant and effective for all teams involved.
The file is available as Figma Community file and also included in all our packages.
We hope that this will help you keep track during the development of your design system and help you and your team to create a solid roadmap.
Happy designing 😊