I used to think a design system was just a style guide and a component library.

About three years ago, I was leading a project for a client in Austin, and we built what I thought was a solid system. Last month, I saw a talk by Sarah from the team at InVision, and she showed how their system included voice and tone rules, content patterns, and even error message guidelines. That changed my mind completely. Has anyone else added content strategy to their design system, and how did you get buy-in from developers?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron_murphy5723d ago

Totally! It's like finding the instructions for the whole box.

gavin_burns491d ago

Instructions for the whole box" feels a bit heavy. I mean, it's just text and buttons, right? How much can you really mess up a basic error message that needs a whole system? Seems like overkill for something that should just be clear.

paul_burns23d ago

Yeah, that talk would have blown my mind too. I was in the same boat, thinking it was just colors and buttons. Getting devs on board was the real fight. I started by showing them how clear error message rules would cut down on support tickets, which they liked. Then we built the content patterns right into Storybook so it was just part of their workflow.