Are design systems an industrial design function of digital products?
By: Dave House
Tags: Frontend, Design, Design Systems

There are two sides to the world of design systems.

One side leans towards the systematisation of graphic design, UI design or a visual language. This is to create order, meaning and harmony across design assets and to provide rules to design any new material from. I look at this as an extension of a graphic standards manual or even a detailed brand guidelines document.

The other has more of a focus on design rationalisation, standardisation, delivery and adoption. For example, making common components reusable across a product line and creating detailed usage guidelines for the design and build process. The goals for this are as much around reducing duplicate work and cost savings as they are about creating a consistent user experience.

Of course, without question all design system teams will have elements of both of these things, just to different ratios.

However, when it comes to actually funding design system teams, they tend to only exist because of the economic benefits of the latter. This is a specific function that design system team performs that is not usually covered by other areas of the business or organisation. This is the side of design system work I want to talk about today .

What is industrial design?

When you search the term ‘industrial design’ the first definition you’ll find is:

“Industrial design (ID) is the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer.”

I don’t know about you, but from working in the design system space almost exclusively for the last 5 years I’d say that is a pretty good description of what design systems teams actually do.

So, could a design system be an industrial design function of a digital product?

Designing for the assembly line

If we go back to post-war Germany and look at the design and manufacture of Volkswagens you will actually start to recognise a lot of the same concepts we talk about in modern digital design systems.

For example, while not always obvious to the viewer, the component design of almost all Volkswagen models in this era are fundamentally the same.

The flagship product

The Beetle, or ‘Type 1’ was the first and only car Volkswagen produced for many years. If we think about the Beetle as an example of your flagship digital product, the approach to this product would undoubtably define the foundations for any future additions to the line.

For Volkswagen, they solved the design of the engine (flat four aircooled) and gearbox, they had chosen methods of suspension (torsion bars), brakes etc and defined an individual and instantly recognisable visual style, all with the Beetle.

A VW Beetle from 1956

Then, while on a visit to the Volkswagen factory a Dutch VW importer by the name of Ben Pon sketched out the concept of a new addition to the line. He imagined reusing the foundational design of a Beetle to create a utility vehicle.

This sketch would become the iconic Volkswagen Type 2 ‘split screen’ bus. The Type 2 would go on to sell millions of units, with just this iteration in production for over 17 years.