Design Systems Cheat Sheet
Everything you need to know about Design Systems
Design Perspective
Foundations & Principles
- Core design values: clarity, consistency, accessibility, efficiency
- Visual language: color, typography, iconography, spacing
- Accessibility as a baseline, not an afterthought
- Brand integration: how to adapt system for multiple brands
Tokens & Theming
- Token taxonomy: global, semantic, component-level tokens
- Theming strategy: light/dark, brand, seasonal themes
- Token delivery: JSON, CSS custom properties, platform exports
- Versioning and deprecation of tokens
Component Design & UX Patterns
- Component anatomy: slots, states, variants, extensibility
- UX patterns: navigation, input, feedback, data display
- Micro-interactions: motion, feedback, transitions
- Accessibility patterns: keyboard navigation, ARIA
- Content strategy: localization, truncation, dynamic content
Design System Operations
- Contribution model: open/closed, design reviews
- Governance: design council, working groups, decision logs
- Adoption playbook: onboarding guides, training, office hours
- Metrics: design system health, adoption, satisfaction
Tooling & Documentation
- Living documentation: automated previews, guidelines
- Figma plugins: token sync, linting, accessibility checks
- Design handoff: inspect mode, code snippets, redlines
- Design QA: visual regression, accessibility audits
Engineering Perspective
Architecture & Infrastructure
- Monorepo structure: packages, utilities, shared configs
- Distribution: npm, CDN, private registries, tokens pipeline
- Platform support: web, mobile, native, email
- Performance: lazy loading, bundle splitting, tree-shaking
- Security: dependency scanning, supply chain, sandboxing
Component Engineering
- API design: composability, controlled/uncontrolled
- Extensibility: slots, overrides, custom renderers
- Accessibility: semantic HTML, ARIA, focus management
- Responsiveness: container queries, adaptive layouts
- Testing: unit, integration, visual regression
Automation & Tooling
- Automated releases: semantic versioning, changelogs
- Code quality: linting, static analysis, type safety
- Storybook/Docs: MDX stories, interactive playgrounds
- CI/CD: preview deployments, visual diffs, auto-publishing
- Migration tools: codemods, upgrade guides
Maintenance & Support
- Issue triage: bug templates, support SLAs
- Deprecation policy: sunset timelines, migration paths
- Usage analytics: adoption, dead code detection
- Community support: office hours, internal champions
Governance & Collaboration
- Contribution workflow: PR templates, code owners
- RFC process: proposal, discussion, implementation
- Release management: canary, beta, stable channels
- Cross-team collaboration: ambassadors, shared OKRs