Design Systems: Building a Consistent Brand Experience Across Platforms

Bauman Studio
3 min readSep 27, 2023

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Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash

Introduction:

A brand's look and feel across digital platforms can significantly impact how it is perceived by its audience. One tool that has proven to be instrumental in maintaining this consistency is a design system. This article explores the importance of design systems in ensuring a cohesive brand experience and provides a step-by-step guide to creating one.

Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash

The Importance of Design Systems:

  1. Brand Consistency:
  2. A design system acts like a guidebook, ensuring the brand looks and feels the same across different platforms, whether a website, a mobile app, or other digital platforms. This consistency helps make the brand easily recognizable and trustworthy to the audience.
  3. Efficiency and Scalability:
  4. Design systems provide a collection of reusable design elements, making it faster and easier to build and expand digital products.
  5. Improved Collaboration:
  6. A design system helps designers, developers, and other stakeholders work together more efficiently by providing a common language for teams.

Steps to Create a Design System:

  1. Discovery and Analysis:
  2. Understanding Business Goals: Understanding what the brand stands for and aims to achieve in the long term is crucial.
  3. User Research: Understanding the needs and preferences of the users is critical to creating a design system that delivers a great user experience.
  4. Competitor Analysis: It's helpful to look at what competitors are doing to find what works and what could be done differently.
  5. Design Principles:
  6. Establish the basic design rules that will be the foundation for creating the design system.
  7. Create a Visual Language:
  8. Colour Palette: Choose colours that represent the brand well and ensure they are pleasant and easy to look at.
  9. Typography: Pick fonts that are easy to read and reflect the brand's character.
  10. Iconography and Imagery: Create icons and images that effectively complement the brand's identity and convey messages.
  11. Component Library:
  12. Create a library of reusable design components like buttons, form fields, and navigation elements that can be used across different platforms.
  13. Documentation:
  14. Document the guidelines on how to use the various elements of the design system. This will serve as a reference for everyone involved in creating digital products for the brand.
  15. Testing and Validation:
  16. Testing the design system with real users is essential to ensure it meets their needs and makes the brand shine.
  17. Maintenance and Evolution:
  18. Establish a process for updating the design system based on feedback and changes in the brand's goals or technology.

Conclusion:

Creating a solid design system is a worthy investment that pays off in brand consistency, better teamwork, and faster development of digital products. It's a strategic move that helps deliver a consistent and enjoyable brand experience across various platforms, which builds a stronger connection with the audience.

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Bauman Studio

We're a team of designers, developers, experts and creatives crafting work that moves people & propels businesses forward.