Creating a design system that guides a UX project does much more than lead to an attractive design that makes it easy for people to use products. Design systems have become an essential part of business success. Without excellent UX, today’s businesses cannot expect to thrive.
If you’re unsure how design systems help build businesses, the following points will likely convince you.
Design Systems Lead to Better Brand Recognition
When project teams create a design system, they build a library of patterns, colors, typography, icons, and spaces that designers can use. Since designers can only use approved assets, the products that a company releases have similarities. A company that releases smartphone games, for example, may have a design system that includes the same typography and color schemes across their titles.
By using the same design system from project to project, consumers learn that they enjoy the products that the company releases. Creating this connection in the minds of consumers leads to better brand recognition. The next time someone sees a game that looks familiar, they are more likely to consider playing it. Without the familiarity, they may scroll by without giving the product a second thought.
Design Systems Lower Production Expenses
In the United States, graphic designers earn about $25 per hour. Every hour that they spend working on projects adds to the production expenses.
Design systems give designers assets that they can use repeatedly. Instead of spending time making new icons and color schemes, they can look at the design system and choose the approved option.
By creating a design system at the beginning of the project, businesses might shave hundreds of hours off of their production times. As a result, they could save hundreds of thousands of dollars developing new products. In today’s competitive market, every attempt to lower expenses moves a business closer to success.
Design System Lower Customer Support Costs
Using the same design system for multiple projects also lowers customer support costs. New users will always have questions about how a product works. Entering a new environment creates confusion. Reaching out to support provides a quick answer. Unfortunately, it also forces businesses to pay customer service reps to respond 24/7.
Once customers become acquainted with how one product works, though, they can become better at using other products built from the same design system. The first product might get 100 customer support requests per hour. By the time a business releases its fourth product built from the same design system, it may receive fewer than 10 support questions per hour.
Design Systems Help Bring New Products to Market Faster
Once you have an established design system, your development team has already accomplished much of the work that goes into creating and releasing new products. This ties directly into how design systems lead to lower production costs. When you already have approved assets ready to add to a new product, you can release websites and apps quickly.
It doesn’t take much foresight to see the benefits of faster production times. By releasing more products, you create more revenue streams. Your new websites can generate income through advertising and sales. New apps can bring in more money through sales, advertising, and freemium plans.
Design Systems Make Product Updates Easier
Your design system will also help you expand existing products more quickly. If you want to add features to an app, your development team can focus on the features instead of the aesthetics and basic functionality. They don’t waste time creating new icons because they already have a library of icons from previous updates.
You have to keep your products updated to stay competitive. Save money and make the process easier on your teams by using UX design studio or systems with excellent UX attributes.
Design Systems Increase Conversions to Make Businesses More Money
Saving money certainly helps businesses reach their goals. Ultimately, though, companies need to generate profits. You might not think that design systems play a crucial role in conversions. Research, however, shows that they can.
A study from Forrester Research shows that a great UX does tremendous things for a company’s revenue. For websites, a design system that leads to excellent user experiences can:
- Increase conversions by nearly 400%.
- Boost customer willingness to spend money by 14.4%.
- Increase customer likeliness to recommend products by 16.6%.
Once a business finds a design system that works for it and its customers, profits can skyrocket.
Conclusion
Obviously, a lot of factors influence a business’s success or failure. For some, design systems can seem like an afterthought left to the design team. Business leaders must take design systems much more seriously. Without an excellent UX, it’s unlikely that enough customers will adopt your products. Investing in a design system and partnering with experienced user experience design agencies to create assets that work can be one of many steps that you must take to build a profitable business.
