2.13 Use a Design System To Prioritize Interface Consistency

Design systems allow common components and patterns to be formalized and managed within a website or application. By using such a tool, designers and developers can avoid reinventing existing tooling and thereby reduce wasted time (and emissions).

Criteria

Design System: A design system is employed based on web standards and recognizable patterns to mutualize interface components and provide a consistent experience for visitors.

Impact

Low

Effort

Medium

Benefits

Environmental:
Consistent interfaces that employ web standards require less energy and resources across the product ecosystem, as they are usually tightly optimized. Also, design systems that incorporate environmental criteria can help to scale digital sustainability across the enterprise and reduce redundancy within code, resulting in collectively reduced energy use and impact.
Social Equity:
A design system with standardized, lightweight components will improve access to information for people in low-bandwidth areas, on older devices, and so on. Also, design systems will reduce the chance of biases that could affect such groups being introduced.
Accessibility:
A design system with accessible components will improve access to information for people with disabilities. Building design features with accessibility baked in by default reduces the potential that people with accessibility requirements will be left out during the website or application’s lifecycle.
Performance:
Design Systems are built using standardized components that reduce the churn of repeat coding, thereby reducing developer coding turnarounds and, as a byproduct, improve performance and reduce emissions during the process. This will inherently reduce emissions considerably through the building of sustainable patterns.
Economic:
Because of their use of standardized components and their avoidance of redundancy, design systems reduce costs as the development time may be reduced (even accounting for the maintenance time involved in having one). Also, familiar-looking websites that can be browsed with ease are likely to suffer lower bounce rates (where visitors just give up) due to the ease of transition (unlike a unique-looking website which can make navigation increasingly complex).
Conversion:
Design Systems encourage using recognizable components throughout a design, which will help visitors identify and utilize the product or service successfully. As such, this will reduce complaints and annoyance, which can help increase customer retention. Also, user-interface consistency improves visitor trust as individuals will recognize familiar components within your design and know how to utilize them, and this can improve conversion rates as it will lower the rates of abandonment.

GRI

materials: Medium
energy: Low
water: Medium
emissions: Low

Example

Polaris Design System.

Resources

View the Guideline