Master the Art of Design Systems in Figma
Lot's of tips, tricks and recommendations.
Have you ever found yourself struggling to keep up with the demands of a rapidly growing product? Or maybe you've spent hours, even days, perfecting the smallest design details only to have them disregarded during development. As a designer, these pain points are all too familiar. The solution to these problems is easy: Use a design system.
As a designer, having a comprehensive design system in place can revolutionize the way you work. It allows you to work more efficiently, create consistent and scalable designs, and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams. And the best part? A well-designed design system can take your designs to the next level, elevating your brand and improving the user experience.
Design systems are no longer just for large corporations with dedicated design teams. They are a must-have tool for any designer looking to streamline their workflow, improve the quality of their designs, and create products that not only look good, but also solve real problems for users.
I created a video course about how to master design systems in Figma, but I want to give you some of the insights and resources anyways.
Why is Figma a great choice to design and managing a design system?
Figma is a great choice for designers looking to design and manage a design system for several reasons:
Collaboration: Figma is a cloud-based tool that makes it easy for multiple designers to work on a project simultaneously, which is ideal for designing and managing a design system. This feature allows designers to share their work, get feedback, and make changes in real-time, making the design process more efficient and streamlined.
Design System Library: Figma has a feature called "Components" that makes it easy to create and reuse design elements, such as buttons, icons, and typography styles, across multiple projects. This saves time and ensures consistency in your design system.
Design System Management: Figma provides a centralized location for managing all design system assets, such as colors, typography, and components. This makes it easier to keep the design system up to date and ensures that designers have access to the latest design assets.
Design Handoff: Figma makes it easy to share design files with developers, stakeholders, and other team members, reducing the time and effort required for handoff. It also provides a platform for developers to access design files, view and inspect design elements, and provide feedback, making it easier to ensure that the final product is consistent with the design system.
Plugins: There are several amazing plugins for Figma to create even better design systems than you could, if you would just use the native features. On the bottom of my Bento page you will find my favourite ones.
Overall, Figma's collaboration, design system library, management, and handoff features make it a great choice for designers looking to design and manage a design system.
Best Resources to Learn How to Build a Design System in Figma
Video Course: Design System Mastery with Figma
Advance your skills with my 1 hour 40 minute course on building a smart and efficient design system in Figma. Get access to my latest tricks and top Figma plugins that can save you time on repetitive work.
I'll teach you:
How to establish a strong foundation
Create smart components
Develop comprehensive documentation
Avoid common mistakes
The best Figma Plugins
and more
Through in-depth explanations and hands-on demonstrations, you'll learn exactly how to build an effective design system in Figma. The course is suitable for both beginners and advanced designers.
Since the course is new and I think it’s great that you’re reading my articles, I give you a 20% discount for the next 30 days.
Just enter the following discount code at the checkout: DSMaster
Set up a design system: Step-by-Step Interactive Handbook
This amazing interactive handbook by Romina Kavcic is going through all phases of creating a design system. Not everything is published yet, but the content at the moment shows:
Where to start
Design Audit
Structure of the design system
Design Tokens and how to use them effectively
I can recommend all the stuff by Romina, she’s really doing great design system work.
Design System Checklist
A great, free checklist about all the content, components structure and tooling, that you should create and use for your upcoming design system.
The cool thing is, that you can use it directly as a checklist on the website. If you’re not sure if you have all necessary components or if you’re not sure which tools you should use.
Figmaster
It’s a combination of a plugin and a workbook about design systems, that sits inside of Figma. You have a couple of lessons, that show you how to create a design system in Figma and you can directly recreate it.
I’m sure it’s worth it, but the pricing starts at $99.
Top 3 Figma Plugins to Help with Design Systems
There are thousands of Figma plugins out there, but there are some plugins that help you a lot with building and maintaining a design system in Figma.
I name you my Top 3 Figma plugins to help you with your design system.
Design System Organizer - Great for maintenance
Propstar - Helps to document component variants
Style Organizer - Find color or text style issues in your library and files
For even more tips and tricks, as well as in-depth guides on building a smart design system, be sure to check out my video course mentioned above.
And don't forget, with the discount code DSMaster, you can save 20%! Design smart, save big!
Today I've published my Figma Study Guide (https://startheredesigner.com/figmaguide), and I've just bought your course, I'm sure it'll be a great resource, so I'm going to add it to my guide as soon as a I finish it :)