A+ Show S7 E8 | AG Grid & Figma - What's Awesome & What's Coming | Diarmuid Mac Cormack & Stephen Cooper
Apr 17, 2024
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Diarmuid and Stephen talk about AG Grid's design system, Figma integration, and the importance of design systems in product development. They explore bridging design and development, design tokens, evolution of design systems, AG Grid's intricacies, visual communication, design guidelines, and the impact of design systems on Angular developers.
Design systems ensure consistency and efficiency in product development by encapsulating design language and UI patterns.
Figma bridges design and development, facilitating seamless communication and collaboration through variables and JSON data export.
Transitioning to a design system uncovers UI defects, leading to iterative improvements and quality assurance in the product.
Deep dives
The Importance of Design Systems in Product Development
Design systems play a crucial role in product development by ensuring consistency and efficiency at scale. They encapsulate design language, UI patterns, and guidelines, enabling product teams to present a cohesive user experience. By incorporating patterns and guidelines, design systems help streamline the design process and promote a positive user experience.
Bridging the Gap Between Design and Development with Figma
Figma serves as a bridge between design and development by facilitating seamless communication and collaboration. It allows designers to use variables and export JSON data, enabling the translation of design decisions into code. This integration enhances the design and development workflow, reducing friction and improving the overall consistency and efficiency in product creation.
Iterative Improvement Through Design Systems
The process of transitioning from a product to a design system can uncover defects and discrepancies in the UI components, leading to iterative improvements in the product. This iterative feedback loop helps identify and address issues, enhance the quality of the user interface, and streamline the design and development process. Design systems serve as a form of quality assurance and facilitate continuous enhancement of the product.
Enhancing Collaboration and Efficiency in Product Development
Design systems not only benefit designers by providing a unified framework for UI components, but also streamline the collaboration between design and development teams. By offering a common language and set of guidelines, design systems empower teams to work cohesively and efficiently. The integration of design systems into development processes leads to improved consistency, faster iterations, and enhanced usability of the final product.
Benefits of Design Systems for Enterprise Apps
Implementing a design system for enterprise apps, even for internal users, offers benefits like ensuring business continuity by providing consistent guidelines for seamless handoffs between designers, fostering professionalism and boosting customer impressions. Developers also benefit from simplified decision-making, efficiency, and reduced time spent on repetitive design choices, leading to increased productivity and code consistency across different teams within the organization.
Challenges and Considerations in Developing Design Guidelines
Developing and enforcing design guidelines within a design system involves considerations such as aligning business needs with design constraints, addressing scalability issues, and ensuring organizational buy-in for long-term success. It requires a balance between offering guidance and flexibility to prevent over-prescription, emphasizing usability, efficiency, and user experience throughout the product development lifecycle.
Diarmuid and Stephen come on the show to discuss AG Grid and their use of Figma to build out design systems and integrate it into their product development process. Come learn what a design system is, how AG Grid built one and how the company thinks about where and how design systems fit into their engineering team.
