Aug 04, 2020 | by Budi Tanrim
Design systems' area of influence: Offering (2/3)
Imagine when a developer wants to compose a page, it will take a lot of time to rebuild everything from scratch. Not to mention the time needed to test the page to avoid bugs. Having a code library where the developer can reuse the same components over and over will increase efficiency in product development greatly. This can be one of the important strategies for a company.
The offering is the tangible output of design systems. You might be familiar with them; component library, icon library, interface guidelines, principles, plugins, tokens, code library, and much more. How good the offering can be measured based on how much time saved if system users use the offering. The quantity of the offering can also contribute on how many touch point the design systems are supporting in product development.
Offering in design systems tied deeply with the identity. Imagine creating a design direction for the icon, should the icon looks playful or elegant? This is where brand identity comes in. The clear company brand positioning and value proposition can help when building the offering.
However, a lot of teams think it’s the ultimate goal to have a lot of offerings. But, imagine, what if we need a new icon, new color, new component, or pattern? What should that process or collaboration look like? I did a mistake in neglecting this part, which cost my team a lot. We flustered because people come with a new proposal with limited time. When a new component needed, who is gonna develop that?
This is where the service design for design systems is important. Which I will talk briefly in the next post.
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