Design Systems for SaaS and Enteprises
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About this service
Summary
Certainly! Design systems are invaluable tools for SaaS companies as they help in maintaining a consistent user interface, increase design and development efficiency, and improve overall user experience. Here's a breakdown of building, auditing, and designing a design system specifically in Figma for a SaaS company software:
### 1. **Understanding and Preliminary Research**
- **Needs Assessment**: Determine the purpose of the design system. What pain points is it trying to address?
- **Stakeholder Interviews**: Talk to designers, developers, product managers, and even end users to understand their needs and requirements.
### 2. **Auditing the Current Design**
- **Component Inventory**: Catalogue every component and pattern already in use. This includes buttons, modals, tables, form elements, etc.
- **Visual Consistency Audit**: Identify where inconsistencies exist in terms of color, typography, spacing, and other visual elements.
- **Functional Consistency Audit**: Look for inconsistent behavior of similar elements across the application.
### 3. **Designing the System**
- **Core Principles**: Establish the guiding principles that will direct the design choices.
- **Visual Language**:
- **Colors**: Define the primary, secondary, and other functional color palettes.
- **Typography**: Choose a type hierarchy, including fonts, sizes, weights, and line heights.
- **Iconography**: Design or select a consistent set of icons.
- **Spacing and Layout**: Determine grid systems, spacing scales, and layout guidelines.
- **Components**:
- **Atoms**: The most basic building blocks such as buttons, inputs, labels.
- **Molecules**: Groups of atoms combined together like a search bar (an input field + button).
- **Organisms**: More complex UI groups, for instance, a header with a logo, navigation, and a search bar.
- **Patterns and Usage Guidelines**: Describe how components should be used and combined to solve common UI challenges.
- **Accessibility**: Ensure that components and patterns adhere to accessibility guidelines, ensuring inclusivity for all users.
### 4. **Integration in Figma**
- **Figma Components**: Convert each design component into a reusable Figma component.
- **Variant Creation**: Utilize Figma’s variants feature to create multiple states or types for a component.
- **Auto Layout**: This can be used to make components more flexible and responsive to content changes.
- **Shared Styles**: Define consistent colors, text styles, and effects to be reused.
### 5. **Documentation**
- **Usage Guidelines**: In addition to the visual assets, it's crucial to document how to use them. This can include when to use a certain component, how to combine them, spacing, etc.
- **Integration with Development**: Offer guidance on how components translate to code. This could include CSS guidelines, code snippets, or even links to a component library if one exists.
### 6. **Feedback and Iteration**
- **Collaboration Tools**: Utilize Figma’s collaborative features to gather feedback directly on the design.
- **Iterative Approach**: As the product grows, the design system will also need to evolve. Regularly review and update components, patterns, and guidelines.
### 7. **Distribution and Adoption**
- **Figma Libraries**: Share the design system with the team by publishing it as a Figma library.
- **Training and Onboarding**: Organize workshops or training sessions to help the team adopt the design system in their workflows.
### 8. **Maintenance**
- **Versioning**: As updates are made, keep versions of the design system, so designers and developers are always aligned.
- **Changelog**: Document changes, additions, and removals to keep all users of the system informed.
### 9. **Review and Continuous Improvement**
- **Feedback Loop**: Regularly collect feedback from the users of the design system to identify areas of improvement.
- **Updates**: As the SaaS product evolves, the design system should evolve as well. Regularly revisit and revise components and guidelines based on new needs or shifts in the design direction.
In conclusion, while building a design system is a significant undertaking, its long-term benefits in consistency, efficiency, and user satisfaction are immense. Using a platform like Figma further simplifies the process thanks to its collaborative features and powerful design tools.
What's included
🔎 Phase1: Research and UX Strategy
Discuss the business use cases: Context, Motives, Goals and KPI. Checking the current situation (Product Design state) and Audit it. Audit current user issues and feedback and provide a roadmap of action. Delivering: PDF's of research/ Findings with Video presentation + a Figma file for the Wireframes.
⚛️ Phase2: Design Production: Figma file with the entire Design System
Figma Source of truth file with all variables components in an atomized structure: Tokens: Logos, Icons, Typography, Colors, Spacing, Grid, Theming and utilities Components: Avatars, Buttons, Inputs, Toggles, ...etc. Organisms: Sidebar, Content Areas (Center, Fluid, Adaptive), Footers, Headers, Navbars, Cards, Modals, Error Messages, Toasters, Charts, Medias (Images, Lightbox, Videos, Sounds, Download/ Uploaders)...etc.
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