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Serious question, has anyone else tried to build a design system with just one designer?
I was the only designer on a project for a small startup in Austin, and I decided to build a full design system in Figma from scratch. I thought it would make things faster in the long run. I spent about two months making all the parts, like buttons, cards, and text styles, and wrote down all the rules. The big surprise came when I handed it off to the two developers. They were totally lost. They said the system was too big and they didn't know where to start. I learned that a design system isn't just a box of parts you build alone. It's a shared language, and if the other people don't help build it, they won't know how to use it. Now I'm stuck trying to get them to use it. Has anyone else had a team not use the system you made, and how did you fix it?
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jennyt8323h ago
Hold on, I totally disagree with @ben_shah93 on this being a trap! Sometimes you have to build the box of parts first to even have a shared language. If you waited for everyone to help, you'd never start. The developers were lost because you probably just dumped the whole system on them. You need to walk them through it piece by piece, show them how it makes their job easier. They won't help build a thing they don't see the point of yet. You built the foundation, now you have to teach them how to use the tools.
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