Chose a token-based system over a component library and it took me 3 months to stop second-guessing it

Last year I had to decide between building a full component library (like Material UI) or going with a token-based design system using CSS custom properties. I picked the token route because our team has 5 different apps that look totally different from each other. The first month was rough, I kept thinking I made the wrong call when my buttons looked naked. But by month 2, the developers started really getting how the tokens worked, and they could spin up new pages way faster without fighting existing components. Now 7 months in, I can tweak the entire look of two apps just by changing a few token values in a single file. Has anyone else gone the token-only path and felt like you were missing guardrails at first?

2 comments

2 Comments

pipergonzalez3d ago

Did it slow you down in the beginning when you had to manually style everything? I went token-only last year and the first few weeks felt like I was building from scratch every time. Once the team got the hang of it though, it was way faster than wrestling with a bloated component library.

miller.paul3d ago

Oh man, I felt this in my bones lol. That first month of second guessing is brutal, like you're just staring at naked buttons wondering if you made a huge mistake. It's awesome that it clicked for your team though, that moment when everyone gets the tokens is the best feeling.