Design systems that engineers actually use

A design system is a product. If it is not versioned with the codebase, it is a mood board. We ship tokens first, then components that encode the hard decisions — not a Figma file that argues with production every sprint.

Engineers will not open three libraries to guess a radius. They will hard-code a value, ship, and the brand will fragment. The system has to be the path of least resistance.

Delete the unused file

One source of truth beats three kits that disagree. We archive the extra Figma libraries, name layers, and publish a JSON token file the app can import on day one.

Components come second. A button that knows disabled, loading, and danger is worth more than forty decorative variants nobody can find.

Version it like software

Breaking a token is a major version. We changelog spacing the same way we changelog APIs. Design review includes the pull request, not a hallway conversation after merge.

When the system is boring, teams move faster. That boredom is the point.