Catalytic Design System

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What is a Design System?

From A Comprehensive Guide to Design Systems article:

A design system is a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications.

Why use a Design System?

Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and IBM have changed the ways they design digital products by incorporating their own unique design systems. By utilizing a collection of repeatable components and a set of standards guiding the use of those components, each of these companies has been able to change the pace of creation and innovation within their teams.

Many organizations have what they consider to be a design system, but these collections typically amount to no more than a group of elements and code snippets. While a style guide or pattern library can be a starting point for a design system, they are not the only components.

What’s the difference between a design system and a styleguide or pattern library?

A design system isn’t only a collection of the assets and components you use to build a digital product.

According to Emmet Connolly, Director of Product Design at Intercom, “… most Design Systems are really just Pattern Libraries: a big box of UI Lego pieces that can be assembled in near-infinite ways. All the pieces may be consistent, but that doesn’t mean the assembled results will be. Your product is more than just a pile of reusable UI elements. It has structure and meaning. It’s not a generic web page, it’s the embodiment of a system of concepts.”