Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your First Design System

Step-by-Step Guide to Building Your First Design System

Many designers are afraid of the word “design system”, thinking that it is something very complicated. In fact, you can create your first design system in 5 simple steps.

Step 1: Identify the main tokens

  • Colors (primary, neutral, semantic)
  • Typography (scale from H1 to Caption)
  • Spacing scale
  • Border radius
  • Shadows

Step 2: Create basic components

  • Button
  • Input
  • Card
  • Badge
  • Toggle
  • Modal - start with them.

Step 3: Add variants

  • To each component - size (sm/md/lg)
  • state (default/hover/focus/disabled)
  • appearance (filled/outlined/ghost)

Step 4: Create documentation

Even a simple page with the name of the component, where it is used and examples is a huge help.

Step 5: Apply in a real project
Replace all the “manual” elements with components from your library.
In the Lattice Edition guide, we analyze this process in as much detail as possible: from creating the first tokens to supporting the system in a team of several designers.

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