Design systems and style guides are closely related and are often taken for one another, but they have different purposes.
How Design Systems and Style Guides Work Together
Both design systems and style guides set out the principles, standards, and visual foundations that are used in order to produce consistent interfaces and user experiences. They enable designers and developers to work from a common framework, which in turn makes it easier to achieve and maintain quality and consistency on a large scale.
The main difference lies in their scope: the design system forms the wider framework, whereas the style guide is one of the basic components thereof. To put it this way, there is a parent-and-child relationship between them, with the design system acting as the parent by combining a number of resources that help in the creation of products, and the style guides, pattern libraries, and component libraries serving as the children, each having a different role within the overall system.
Design System | Style Guide | |
|---|---|---|
Definition | A comprehensive framework of standards, reusable components, and patterns for designing and building products consistently at scale. | A reference document containing guidelines, visual examples, and principles for maintaining a consistent style. |
Scope | Broad and holistic: Covers visual foundations, interaction patterns, reusable components, content standards, accessibility, and code implementation. | Narrow and focused: Defines standards for a particular area—such as visual design, content, or branding—to ensure consistent execution. |
Design Systems
A design system is an ever-developing set of common standards, reusable components, and existing patterns that allows teams to design and build consistent experiences on a large scale.
The main aim of a design system is to achieve consistency on a large scale while cutting down on repetitive design and development work; in the absence of such a system, large organizations tend to produce many different versions of the same elements and patterns, which in turn leads to internal inconsistency, wasted effort, and code that becomes more and more difficult to maintain.
A design system also creates a common language for use among the design, engineering, and other departments. For instance, two design teams that are working separately can make use of the same components and patterns when carrying out different projects. They can produce user experiences that look and behave consistently, even when they are not collaborating directly.
Engineering teams have the same shared foundation. Rather than recreating common elements for each feature, developers can make use of components that have already been tested and are ready for use in a production environment. This helps to speed up implementation, cuts down on unnecessary code, and ensures that the final product stays in line with the intended design.
The Design-System Repository
A repository offers a central location in which to store, organize, document, and access all the various elements of a design system; it is generally available as a separate website or online portal.
A design-system repository typically includes:
Style guides consisting of documentation that sets out the standards for various areas such as brand, visual design, voice, and content.
A component library is a set of reusable interface elements, for example, buttons, inputs, and dialogs. Each component includes design and implementation guidance on its customizable properties, supported versions, interaction states, accessibility requirements, and production-ready code.
A pattern library consists of reusable combinations of components which are designed to deal with common interface problems; for instance, a page-header pattern would combine a title, breadcrumbs, search facilities, and the primary and secondary actions.
The supporting materials include design files—usually kept in Figma—which enable teams to use and put together the system's components. In addition, the repository can also offer logos, icons, typefaces, templates, design tokens, and other items needed by designers and developers.
The distinction between style guides, component libraries, and pattern libraries is not always clear. Different organizations may arrange these resources in various ways or use the same terms to refer to slightly different things, causing confusion about design-system terminology.
Maintaining a Design System
A design system is a dynamic resource that needs ongoing care and attention; if it is not properly maintained, documented, and supervised, its components and guidelines will quickly become outdated or irrelevant.
In organizations where design practices are well developed, there might be a specific internal team responsible for developing, overseeing, and maintaining the system; in smaller companies or in those that have a less mature approach to design, however, the same duty may be carried out by a senior individual contributor who works closely with designers, engineers, and product teams.
Style Guides
A style guide is a reference document that lays out the principles, visual standards, and instructions for implementing them in order to ensure consistent interfaces and other brand experiences.
Style guides give specific guidance regarding a particular aspect of execution. Most focus on one of three types: content and tone, brand identity, or visual and front-end design.
Content Style Guides
Content style guides set out the content standards of an organization; they specify the way in which written communication should sound and look, and can also include details about editorial workflows, the review process, and publishing practices.
A content style guide typically covers:
Voice and tone refer to the way in which the organization communicates and the emotions that its content should convey.
Grammar and spelling involve setting out the rules concerning abbreviations, capitalization, contractions, numbers, dates, punctuation, and regional variations in spelling.
Explanation of when and how to use headings, bold type, lists, links, and other structural features in order to enhance clarity and consistency.
Brand Style Guides
Brand style guides set out the basic elements and the rules regarding their use which determine the way in which a brand is presented in its products, communications, and marketing materials.
They typically cover:
Specify the primary, secondary, and supporting colors, as well as the approved and accessible color combinations.
Typography refers to the choice of font families, typefaces, weights, sizes, hierarchy, and the recommended use of semantic elements—for instance, the use of H2 elements for subheadings.
Logos: Supplies the approved logo, wordmark, and symbol variations together with advice on sizing, spacing, placement, color, and use on a background.
This creates a unified visual style for use in photography, illustration, video, and other forms of media.
Front-End—or Visual—Style Guides
Front-end style guides, which are also referred to as visual and interaction-design standards, set out the basic components of a product's interface and describe how these should be applied. They are usually available on a website and can include visual examples, usage advice, and code snippets for developers.
Even though they overlap with component and pattern libraries, their objects are different: a front-end style guide sets out the design principles and conventions on a system-wide basis, while component and pattern libraries offer reusable assets and the implementation details needed to build specific interfaces.
Front-end style guides usually also overlap with brand guidelines and may include:
Responsive layouts and grid systems
Product color palettes
Typography and type styles
Common interface components
Maintaining Style Guides
As with design systems, style guides also require clear ownership and ongoing oversight to stay accurate, relevant, and useful. The question of who is responsible usually depends on the kind of guide.
A brand style guide can be put together by either an internal brand or design team or by an external design or marketing agency and generally stays fairly stable, with major revisions only being necessary when there is a change to the organization or when it refreshes its brand.
Content style guides are generally set up and kept up to date by the content team, especially by
content strategists, editors, and UX writers. They develop in keeping with the organization's voice, its terminology, and its publishing practices.
Front-end style guides are usually kept together by both UX and engineering teams, with designers setting out the visual and interaction standards and developers helping to make sure the guidance remains technically accurate and in line with how it is implemented.
Conclusion
Design systems form a common framework by bringing together components, patterns, styles, and guidelines so that organizations can scale and improve their design practice.
Use a design system to:
Design and build products faster and more consistently at scale
Establish a shared language across design, engineering, and other departments
Reduce duplicated patterns, components, and implementation effort
The purpose of style guides is more limited; since they form part of a wider design system, they set clear standards for particular aspects of the experience.
Use style guides to:
Create a cohesive experience across products and communications
Maintain consistency in areas such as content, branding, and visual design
Design systems and style guides together provide teams with the structure, resources, and common standards required so that they can create coherent experiences efficiently.
Dworkz is a UI/UX design and development firm in San Francisco that works with data-driven B2B SaaS companies. If your team is moving fast but your brand still feels inconsistent, let’s work together to make it more cohesive.
