Design systems are critical to modern product development. Oftentimes, companies end up treating them as an afterthought— and it’s costing them. If your design system or its adoption is inconsistent, your users, developers, and bottom line are all paying the price.
For product or DevOps leaders in complex industries like legal, healthcare, or finance, these inefficiencies compound over time. If you don’t have a design system in place or yours isn’t working as it should, here’s how to turn things around.
Not sure where to begin? We discuss why design systems are crucial to scaling enterprise products effectively in our Design Systems 101: Building a Cohesive User Experience with BP3 article. Whether you’re just starting out or have a design system in place, there are some key warning signs that things may not be working as well as you think.
5 Signs Your Design System Isn’t Working for You
- Inconsistent User Experience
Are your users seeing different interactions across products? Inconsistency breeds confusion among users. Without clear interaction and content guidelines, you’ll frustrate your users as they find workarounds to complete daily tasks.
- Endless Revisions
Are you constantly tweaking designs or messaging? This often points to a lack of clear, reusable design elements or guidelines. Standardizing design components and establishing guidelines for interactions and content help prevent endless revisions.
- Low Product Adoption
Are users ignoring your new features or products? Misaligned design systems that don’t reflect real user needs lead to poor adoption. Data-backed personas should drive your design decisions, not assumptions.
- Frustrated Developers
Are developers stuck interpreting vague guidelines? Ambiguity wastes time and decreases the quality of your codebase. Your design system should be clear and easy to follow, allowing developers to move quickly and efficiently.
- Can’t Scale
If you’re constantly reworking designs and struggling to scale, especially across your suite of products, your system isn’t built to grow with your business. A scalable design system can handle evolving needs by establishing structured guidelines to apply design decision-making, allowing teams to reach consensus on designs faster.
How We Fixed a Design System for a Legal Services Client
BP3 helped a major legal services company overhaul their ailing design system, resulting in faster product releases and better user engagement. Here’s how:
1. Centralized Component Library
We found the company had multiple, scattered versions of the same components, leading to confusion and inconsistent design. Our designers implemented a design system along with component context and implementation guideline documentation. In conjunction we worked with the development team to implement a component library, linked with the design system via design tokens. A well documented design system, synchronized with a reusable code library ensured that teams could easily access and reuse components, cutting development time and improving consistency across all applications.
2. Content Guidelines
Inconsistent messaging caused confusion and wasted time. By implementing clear content guidelines, we standardized tone and style, reducing back and forth across teams and improving consistency across platforms, which facilitated content creation and user understanding.
3. Effective Governance and Change Management
Even the best design system fails without buy-in, and a lack of ownership can lead to stagnation. We ensured adoption through leadership support, establishing clear governance processes, training teams to integrate tools like Figma and internal wikis into daily workflows. Assigning clear ownership roles across management and teams drove awareness, minimized resistance, and ensured the system’s long-term sustainability.
4. Data-Backed Personas
The company was designing based on assumptions, which didn’t align with actual user needs. We introduced data-backed personas that reflected their real workflows in their components, leading to higher adoption rates.
How Mature Is Your Design System?
Ask yourself these key questions to assess whether your design system is effective:
- Do your teams consistently follow design and content standards?
Inconsistencies in your design and messaging lead to inefficiencies. Establishing clear guidelines enables teams to make consistent decisions across the board.
- Is your system evolving with user needs?
A static system quickly becomes outdated. Ensure you’re continuously updating your design system based on user's needs, and supported by a well defined governance process.
- Do you have the right tools, processes, and management support for adoption?
Even the best design system will fail without proper adoption. Success depends on having the right tools and processes, strong management support, and clear ownership. Leadership should promote the system, while clear owners ensure teams are accountable and fully adopt it.
- Are your design decisions based on real user data?
Designing based on guesswork leads to misaligned user experiences. Data-backed personas ensure your system and components are designed to reflect real user needs.
- Are your teams aligned on the design system’s value?
Collaboration across teams is essential. To prevent confusion, product, design, and development need to be aligned. This ensures each team has the same understanding of what the design system does and how they’re expected to use it.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Let Your Design System Hold You Back
A weak design system can lead to inefficiencies, rework, and poor user experiences. By standardizing components, establishing clear governance processes, using data-backed personas, and ensuring proper team alignment, you can turn your design system into a competitive advantage.
Ready to assess your design system? Fill out the form below to get started, and we’ll help you build or refine a system that works for your business.