arrow

Blog

UI Design

Design Systems

Design Systems 101: Level Up Your SaaS Design

Updated on Jun 7, 2024   |   Célestin Lebéhot   |   9min

Visual representation of a Design System with orbiting stars

Imagine this: your SaaS development is in chaos. Designers and developers are locked in endless debates over button styles and color palettes. Deadlines are missed, budgets balloon, and frustration mounts. Sound familiar? This is the reality for many companies without a Design System. In this article, we'll explore what a Design System is, how it differs from a simple Style Guide, and the tangible benefits it brings to SaaS development. Read on to discover the key to a streamlined, efficient, and design-consistent SaaS product.

Table of contents

What is a Design System? Definitions.

A Design System is much more than just a style guide or a visual component library. It's an evolving and collaborative ecosystem bringing together a set of rules, principles, guidelines, and centralized resources that define and document all the elements that make up a software, SaaS, or app's user experience.

In other words, it's the single source of truth for everything related to the design of your SaaS product. It ensures visual consistency, development efficiency, and a better user experience.

To better understand what a Design System is, it is also important to understand what are called Tokens, the Color System, the Type System, and the component library.

What are Tokens?

Tokens are the most basic building blocks of a Design System. They are unique, named values that represent design decisions such as colors, typography, spacing, and more. They serve as the foundation for building all other elements of the Design System. They are linked to variables, for example, a color variable in a palette, and can be primitive, semantic, or tied to specific components. Using tokens allows for better harmony within the platform and allows the Design System to evolve effectively. Read our article on Design Tokens to better understand.

Understanding Design System Tokens

What is a Color System?

The Color System defines the palette of colors used in your SaaS and the tokens associated with them. It includes brand colors, primary and secondary colors, as well as colors used for states and messages (success, error, warning). It can be wise to properly document the Color System within a style guide for better collaboration. If you're in the mood for it, read our article on Color Systems to understand its impact on the success of your SaaS product.

What is a Type System?

Similar to the Color System, the Type System defines the typographic styles used in your SaaS, including font families, font sizes, font weights, line heights, and letter spacing. It is also documented within the style guide.

The Component Library

The component library is a collection of reusable user interface components, such as buttons, forms, drop-down menus, modals, and more. These components are designed and developed once and then reused throughout the SaaS, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

Differences Between Design System and Style Guide

It’s important to distinguish a Design System from a simple Style Guide. Although often used interchangeably, Design Systems and Style Guides are distinct. Imagine a house: the Design System represents the foundations, structure, and materials, while the Style Guide is akin to the interior design choices (at merveilleUX, we love to compare UX to the field of construction).

A style guide is a component of a Design System

A Design System is much more than just a document. It consists of:

The Style Guide is an element of the Design System. It focuses on the visual and editorial aspects of the product:

Why Implement a Design System for a SaaS?

Implementing a Design System for your SaaS represents a valuable investment on several levels.

Consistency and Uniformity

Efficiency and Productivity

Adaptability and Scalability

Improved User Experience

How to Create a Design System?

Creating a Design System is a major project that requires a methodical and collaborative approach.

1. Start with an audit and analysis of what already exists

2. Define the Principles and Guidelines.

Architecture, component catalog, style rules: choose a structure for the Design System with different files, pages, and components depending on the size of the software.

Caution, this is not the Style Guide, which serves as documentation.

Choose and define naming conventions for your variables, tokens, and components.

Research the different plugins you can use (e.g., Tailwind CSS for colors).

If you are familiar enough with interface design software like Figma or Adobe XD, you can move on to the next step. Otherwise, don't hesitate to outsource the Design System design part.

3. Build the Design System

Once the documentation is well structured, you can start making aesthetic choices by creating primitive and semantic tokens (*).

Choose the Colors and Create the Palettes: The Color System

Choose colors carefully based on your brand's graphic charter, while adapting them for accessibility. At a minimum, you'll need black, white, shades of gray, brand colors (primary and secondary), and alert level colors (danger, warning, and success). For a SaaS, colors will be defined for surfaces (div{background-color}), borders (div{border}), texts (p{color}), and shapes (icons or SVG).

Pay Attention to Accessibility: We don't all have the same eyes. It's important to check on sites like Coolors or ContrastChecker that two colors are visually compatible, especially when writing on surfaces.

Choose the Typography

In addition to colors, also create text styles, including fonts. Start by defining variables and primitive tokens for each element that a text tag can depend on (font-family, line-height, size, weight, letter-spacing).

Next, define the text styles. For a SaaS, you will most often need "Display" styles (buttons, labels), "Heading" styles, and "Body" styles (for paragraphs). Each style can be in different sizes.

Choose the Icons

An often overlooked but crucial aspect of your Design System's consistency is the choice of icons. It's not just about finding "pretty" icons, but about selecting a style that blends seamlessly with your SaaS's visual identity. You can choose from fine line icons for subtle actions, solid icons for important buttons, or more detailed illustrations for specific cases. Popular icon libraries like Font Awesome or Material Icons offer a wide selection, but you can also opt for custom icons.

Never Forget Accessibility: Your icons should be readable and understandable by everyone, including people with visual impairments.

Choose and Define the Dimensions

Visual consistency also involves careful management of dimensions and spacing. A grid system (Grid System) is your best ally: it divides the space into columns and gutters, providing a solid structure for positioning your elements. Define a rhythmic spacing system (e.g., 4px, 8px, 16px) to ensure visual harmony.

Don't Forget Responsive Design: Dimensions must adapt to different devices (computers, tablets, mobiles).

Create and Configure the Grid

Before you jump in head first, think about what type of grid best suits your SaaS's needs. The number of columns and the width of the gutters will impact how content is organized. The goal is to create a flexible grid that can adapt to different screen sizes using techniques like flexbox or CSS grid layout.

Create the UI Components (Buttons, Tabs, Alerts, etc.).

UI components are the building blocks of your user interface. Start by identifying the essential components for your SaaS: buttons, forms, drop-down menus, modals, cards, etc. For each component, describe its different states (active, inactive, hover) and their visual impact. Accessibility is paramount: use ARIA attributes, check color contrast, etc. Illustrate each component with visual examples and code snippets to facilitate their use by developers.

4. Create Related Resources

Whether it's using a Figma project, a .pdf file, or a web page, it's important to properly document the operation and architecture of your Design System, including usage tips and style guides. You will ensure perfect harmonization and collaboration between the different members of the team and those who will join in the future.

5. Manage Maintenance and Evolution.

A Design System is never set in stone. As your interface develops, components will change, be duplicated and then adapted, and sometimes they will be "broken" (non-functional due to human design error). You will need to manage this maintenance and evolution by collaborating with developers and properly documenting changes.

Visual palette and representation of a Design System Style Guide

Tips for a Good Design System

Building an effective Design System requires rigor and foresight. Here are some tips to guide you:

1. Lay a Solid Foundation:

2. Be Iterative and Adaptable:

3. Make Documentation a Priority:

4. Don't Hesitate to Outsource:

Conclusion

Creating a Design System for a SaaS is essential to enable exponential growth. It's a strategic investment that pays off in the long run: by focusing on consistency, efficiency, and scalability, you provide your teams with the keys to better collaboration and your users with an intuitive and enjoyable experience. Remember: a Design System is a living organism that is built and refined over time. By listening to the needs of your users and incorporating feedback from your team, your Design System will become a major asset for the growth and success of your SaaS.

Unfortunately, it is an iterative process that requires rigor and expertise that some teams do not always have in-house. So sometimes, outsourcing part of your SaaS product design (including the foundations of a good Design System) can be a cost-effective and efficient solution to get back on track.

At merveilleUX, we are flexible and can collaborate with your teams to achieve your ambitions, so contact us now to discuss it.

Bring Your Product Ideas to Life with Prototypes Custom mockups, reducing friction

Discover how our mockup and prototype services can bring your ideas to life! Explore our full range of design solutions and let our experts create custom mockups for your business. Ready to turn your concepts into reality?

These articles might pique your interest: