Global Design System: Do we really need it?

Does adding the tag "Global" to "Design Systems" signal a huge leap, addressing the shortcomings of existing design systems? Let's explore the potential and expectations.

Global Design System is all the rage in the design world. Debates are roiling as the design community is divided on the true meaning, purpose, and feasibility of a global design system.

A host of open-source design systems of tech leaders like Google’s Material 3, Microsoft’s Fluent, and Shopify’s Polaris are already available and are working just fine.

These systems are used by organizations to design their products quickly and effortlessly. They have taken the burden off the shoulders of designers and developers by eliminating the need for repeated iterations and guesswork.

Then, why do we need a Global Design System - when the existing design systems fit the bill? 

Let’s look at what the industry pioneers and top design enthusiasts have to say about the existing design systems.

Front end designer Brad Frost defines Design Systems as “the official story of how your organization designs and builds design interfaces”. 

Design director of Nike’s design system, Hayley Hughes says “a design system is any set of decisions governed across an organization. “

Developer Jeremy Keith opines, “Components are the trees. The Design System is the forest.” 

The truth is,existing design systems don't tick all the boxes. These solutions were created with the specific goals and considerations of individual organizations in mind, leaving gaps that pose challenges. Among these challenges is the risk of products appearing overly similar to those of other organizations and the looming question of brand identity.

In this blog, we will discuss

• Why Global Design System matters?
• What are the benefits of Global Design System?
• How to implement Global Design System?

What Is the Rationale Behind Global Design System- Why Does It Matter?

The design systems were a boon for designers, sparing them the need to painstakingly design and build user interfaces for each product. Design systems promised consistency and cohesion in user interfaces, but not without challenges.

The Domino Effect of Individual Efficiency Leading to Organizational Duplication 

While design systems enable designers to select design elements like drop-down menus, accordions, or forms for use in their digital products, this efficiency at an individual level has led to a new challenge.

As every organization adopts design systems, for example, like that of Google's Material Design, their products' icons and designs can begin to resemble Google's, diluting their unique brand identity. These design systems have a specific default aesthetic that caters to their organizational( here Google’s) requirements. 

Many organizations end up with similar-looking designs, whether they are e-commerce, stock trading platforms, or tech websites. This lack of uniqueness raises the question: where is the brand's identity in all this?

The Global Design System sees this gap as an opportunity and aims to bridge it. It offers a comprehensive solution to ensure that your brand stands out in the crowd. Take a look at the picture to see what GDS is all about.

A Global Design System, complete with a centralized library of UI components, can dramatically minimize unnecessary duplication. Its ease of integration with any web-based stack is a huge advantage, ensuring adherence to the best front-end practices for web experiences worldwide. 

Quality Quagmire 

Existing design systems often impose rigid frameworks on designers, constraining their ability to adapt to evolving user needs and design trends. Despite the numerous opportunities for customization, designers can feel restricted by the predefined design principles of these systems, leading to a compromise in design quality.

Designs that fail to evolve with changing user expectations risk becoming outdated and losing relevance. This highlights the importance of flexibility and adaptability in design.

Global Design Systems (GDS) offer a themeless and highly customizable skeletal framework, allowing designers to tailor components to fit the specific requirements of each project or product. This ensures that designs remain up-to-date and of high quality, meeting the evolving demands of users and the market.

Drifting Away from Accessibility Standards

Accessible design systems are both a moral imperative and legal responsibility to ensure designs are usable by everyone. While existing design systems offer some level of accessibility, there's no foolproof guarantee of compliance. This leaves organizations vulnerable to potential accessibility issues, which can have legal and ethical implications. 

Shockingly, WebAIM reports that 96% of popular website designs are inaccessible, highlighting the critical need for accessibility in design systems.

With a Global Design System (GDS) in place, organizations don’t have to worry about accessibility checks, as the components library will have built-in accessibility features. This eliminates the need for audits after a product launch. 

As we have seen the challenges now faced by organizations with isolated design systems, we can distill down the benefits of a Global Design System. 

The Benefits of a Global Design System:

• Consistency 

A GDS acts as a centralized repository for core design elements such as buttons, forms, and menus. By standardizing these elements, the GDS ensures a uniform look and feel across all products, enhancing user familiarity and trust.

• Efficiency

The implementation of a GDS significantly streamlines the design process. Rather than starting from scratch for each project, teams can leverage existing design elements from the GDS. This not only saves time and resources but also allows teams to focus their efforts on enhancing user experiences and addressing specific design challenges.

• Scalability 

As businesses evolve and introduce new products or services, the scalability of design efforts becomes crucial. A well-structured GDS can seamlessly incorporate new design elements, making them accessible to all teams. This agility enables companies to maintain a cohesive design language across all offerings, facilitating brand recognition and user engagement.

• Room for more creativity 

One of the arguments against the Global Design System might stifle creativity for designers. However, the reality is quite the opposite. Designers can apply their creativity within the framework, much like the concept of "stealing like an artist" from the book by Austin Kleon, where the idea is that great artists don't copy, they remix and reinterpret ideas to create something new and unique. 

• Accessibility

Global Design Systems promises a systematic approach to accessibility by providing a set of pre-built components that will be designed and tested to meet accessibility standards. This saves time and effort for designers and developers and ensures that products are accessible from the outset. By incorporating GDS into their workflow, organizations can create more inclusive and user-friendly digital experiences for all users.

How to Implement a Global Design System? 

Implementing a Global Design System (GDS) involves more than just defining what it looks like. It requires intensive discussions, conferences, and open dialogues to find suitable stakeholders who can champion the cause of a GDS. As Brad Frost suggests, a GDS should have the following key characteristics:

• A standardized library of common UI components.

• Accessibility and inclusivity, following front-end best practices.

• Customizability to match any brand or design language.

• Intuitiveness, with a cohesive and consistent API language.

• Interoperability, able to power any website or app.
• Internationalization, accommodating diverse languages and writing modes

• Composability and extensibility for easy modification and extension

• Comprehensive documentation and guidelines

• Centralized design tokens for consistent styling across components

However, it's equally important to understand what a GDS should not be:

• A singular aesthetic dictation, but allowing for brand customization

• An attempt to cover every possible UI scenario, but focusing on common use cases

• Static, but rather evolving with user feedback and technological advancements

• Stifling creativity, but providing a foundation for consistency

• Rigid rules, but allowing for flexibility and customization.

So, the GDS is up for the race to bring in a new era and hope for designing products that are unique and accessible in itself. I hope we can see an expanded horizon of creativity and newer ways in which users are going to respond and adapt, all illuminated by a  streak of innovation.