Design systems at work: Optimizing design processes and aligning design work to company identity
Loading...
URL
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Location:
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Authors
Date
2018
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
68
Series
Abstract
User experience design in a company setting typically involves teams comprised of individuals with diverse roles, who need to collaborate when creating products and services. Resources exist to set standards for design within such a company, guiding teams of designers and developers to create products and services with a consistent look and feel that are also in line with the company’s branding. These resources include UX guidelines, UI style guides, design patterns, and design languages. The latest such resource is the design system. This thesis explores the term design system in terms of its definition and how it is applied by design professionals within companies. It seeks to understand how to define the term and how to create a design system to support the needs of a company’s design teams, and ultimately, provide a pleasant and consistent experience for end users. Following this focus on design in practice, the literature review has a heavy emphasis on articles and blog entries by working designers explaining what design systems are to them, how they have built them, and how they use them. This is complemented by academic literature on topics related to collaborative work in digital product teams, design management, and storytelling methods to drive adoption within companies. Expert interviews were also conducted with design professionals who have led design system teams in organizations. The literature review and expert interviews revealed a definition for design system that is not standardized, yet fairly consistent from speaker to speaker. Design systems broadly encompass the early types of standardizations for design. They include design languages, guidelines, and style guides. They go even further by not only establishing standards for how designs should look and lead to interactions. Design systems also provide the philosophy behind the design decisions that were made, relating them to the company’s mission and branding. This thesis also contains a case study with the global engineering company ABB, tracing the beginning of its central design team and transition from a UI style guide to a design system. Designers and developers throughout the company were surveyed and interviewed to hear their needs and expectations. Service design approaches were used to conduct participatory research with stakeholders within the company, with the aim of engaging them in the process of creating a design system. Implications on a company level, industry level, and academic level are discussed. This thesis on design systems supports the case company ABB in creating its design system, and on a broader scale, connects academic and industry discussions on collaborative work in design teams to explain how design systems can be built and used.Description
Supervisor
Lucero, AndrésThesis advisor
Lucero, AndrésKeywords
design system, UX guidelines, UI style guide, design management, branding, storytelling, service design