Design system kickoff (interface inventory)

One of the first steps in creating a design system is to conduct an interface inventory. An interface inventory gives us a categorized overview of which components make up our digital product.

Benefits of an interface inventory:

• Gain clarity regarding which design components make up a digital product.
• Help us analyze inconsistencies between them.
• Gain buy-in from stakeholders to establish a design system.
• Start a conversation with your team on how to refactor design with a pattern-based approach.
• Use it as a blueprint for a pattern library.

#anchorWorkshop Overview

1. 

   People, process, and tools

   Establish which core features in the user journey should be prioritized, clarify ownership and team communication, agree on criteria and a toolset.

2. 

   UI patterns

   Go over different user interface pattern types: functional, perceptual, platform-specific, domain-specific, persuasive.

3. 

   Hands-on work

   Divide and categorize screenshots of core features of your web interface by functional categories (e.g. buttons, forms, navigation, typography, lists) and intended use.

4. 

   Nomenclature

   Discuss naming as a shared language and mental model. We will go over naming conventions and practice naming interface components.

5. 

   Share and learn

   Share and discuss our findings and rationale, as well as which patterns we would keep, merge, and discard.

6. 

   Next steps

   We'll share crucial steps that help us succeed when transitioning an organization to a design system.

Interface inventories are a key first step to create alignment and advocate transitioning to using design patterns in an organization. To get the most out of this workshop, bring in a cross-disciplinary team – we encourage people from every department that builds your product to join. Designers, developers, project managers, business owners, QA – are all welcome.

#anchorLeads

Mar High

Director of Product Design

Mar helps companies solve their user's problems in creative and scalable ways and has expertise in facilitating the transition of digital products into a design system. Some of her past design system projects include MOVU, Search Guard, Premium Group, Project A: The Operational VC, Horizn Studios, kfzteile24, and Homeday.