ROI of design systems
Is a Design System really worth it? How do you know?
I came across a text I wrote some time ago that I forgot to publish on the topic of design systems and the ROI of using a design system on projects.
So, here it is.
Why do we have to start building our design system?
In 2017 it became evident that “software is eating the world”, while… “design is eating software development”.
5/10 companies from the top 10 companies by the market cap are either exclusively growing by producing software, or software is an essential part of their revenue stream.
And in the past years, these companies increased their design headcount by an average of 65%.
& Design Keeps Growing!
Designer to Developer Ratio Improved by 2.5x in 5 years (statistic was in 2017… now is a whole other story)!
The market is booming and there’s more demand for designers than ever, but with the new scale, new problems emerge…
Design Does Not Scale Through Hiring Only
The business requirements pressure designers to build more, faster and better, but without standards in place, every new hire is going to further slow down the process.
Without a Design System…
Every new hire and every new project increases chaos in the process and slows down the velocity
Without a design system, the software development process becomes gradually slower and s l o w e r, and the experience of users suffers from growing inconsistencies.
Do we have this problem?
Well, let’s see…
- Are we happy with the speed of product development?
- Do our interfaces share the same design patterns, colors, typography, and other styles?
- Do we have enough time to deliver a quality product to meet KPIs?
- How much time and money do we spend on redundant design or code tasks?
- How much time and money do we spend cleaning up design or technical debt?
Enough for one of these to improve, this makes the creation of the design system worthwhile.
Let’s take a look at some of the elements of our product…
Every single one uses different styling, CSS classes, and JS components.
Or our Color Palette
22 Shades of Gray
9 Shades of Blue
Every unnecessary color slows us down and forces us to think which color is right.
We’re not alone. To overcome these challenges thousands of companies are investing in Design Systems.
What is a Design System?
“A scalable framework of decisions & team behaviours across a product portfolio to converge on a cohesive experience.“ — Nathan Curtis
Is it worth it?
Let’s look at some conservative numbers.
Design
Are designers spending 30 minutes/day on any of these?
- What shade of blue are we using?
- Can you redline this for me?
- Can you redesign this? We can’t build it like this…
- Where’s our logo?
- Where are approved stock photos?
- Was this pattern used somewhere else?
Design System ROI for the Design Team
If you have a rate of $40 per hour. For a team of 4 designers.
2.5h/week * 52 weeks * $40 * 4 designers = $20,800/year
Development
Are developers spending 30 minutes/day on any of these?
- Can you rebuild this, it doesn’t match the design?
- What’s the latest documentation?
- How do we build this pattern?
- Does this meet the code standards?
- Where are our components?
Design System ROI for the Developer Team
If you have a rate of $60 per hour. For a team of 40 developers.
2.5h/week * 52 weeks * $60 * 40 devs = $312,000/year
A Design System has a big return on investment for the Development Team.
“Design systems also save time and money. Just by eliminating code redundancy, more than 20% of a developer’s time can be regained. For a team of 100 developers, this means around $2 million per year.” — projekt202 Managing Architect, Drew Loomer
Just the time and money saved thanks to a design system makes the whole project worth it. And this isn’t even the entire value. We’ll deliver better experiences faster. Customers will notice. By using well-tested components, we’ll lower the cost of long-term maintenance. And we’ll get the most out of every new hire, due to faster-standardized onboarding with the design system.
The bottom line:
- Decreased development and design cost
- Bring cohesion across platforms
- Provide trusted resources from a central point
- Look towards the future without recreating the wheel
- Faster time to market
- Better product quality
- Happier customers
Other interesting reads on the subject:
