Imagine starting a project from scratch – be it designing, writing, or developing new tech features; the challenge always lies in finding the starting point. The struggle can sometimes last for hours straight until you find a breakthrough. However, what if we could have a repeatable setup for such scenarios which can speed up the process? Wouldn’t that make the process much simpler? Well, yes! This is what a design system is in the world of UI and UX design.
A design system is a collection of reusable components, guidelines, and assets that are designed to help cross-functional teams create consistent and cohesive products or services. It includes a set of shared principles, patterns, and practices that provide a framework for designing and building products that are scalable, feasible, and user-friendly.
An effective design system is instrumental in driving efficiency since it serves as a framework for designing and building new products. Consequently, the focus and efforts shift towards creating high-quality products that meet the users’ needs as the redundant processes are eliminated. By having a shared understanding of design principles, styles, tokens, and patterns, teams can operate with better coordination, and make better decisions about what to include in their products. This can also help to improve communication between team members, making it easier to collaborate and share feedback.
Design systems can also help teams deliver products more quickly and with greater consistency. By providing a library of pre-built components and templates, designers and developers can focus on the unique aspects of projects, rather than spending time reinventing the wheel. This not only saves time, but also helps to ensure that the end product is more cohesive and aligned with the overall design vision.
Most importantly, design systems enable consistency and continuity in designs across a range of products, even if they are developed by different teams or individuals. Ultimately, a design system can help lead the development of brand identity while smoothening the user experience via relatable elements, making the platforms more intuitive.
Overall, design systems are a powerful tool for improving efficiency, consistency, and quality in cross-functional teams. They help to streamline the design and development process, reduce errors, and ensure that the highest standard of the product is delivered and on time.
Incedo Zeal – The design system
Incedo has developed a design system called Zeal that is both adaptable and durable. The main objective is to develop digital products that are uniform, multifunctional, and able to conform to changing trends and requirements. The system consists of essential building blocks, components, templates, and guidelines that all work together to produce a modern, sleek style that aligns with Incedo’s values and principles.
The impeccable Incedo Zeal streamlines the design and delivery process by providing reusable components leading to greater efficiency, consistency, and cost-effectiveness.
Visual Design & Strategy
The visual design language is the core of a design system. It’s made up of the distinguishable components that are used to construct a digital product. The visual design language is made up of four main categories, including color, typography, spacing & size, and imagery.
Components
Components are the foundation of a design system, serving as the essential building blocks that provides structure and consistency to every aspect of product design. By creating a library of reusable components, you can establish a visual and functional standard that permeates every product and service you offer. This systematic approach to design ensures that every user experience is intuitive, cohesive, and optimized for their needs. Patterns take this a step further by providing tested solutions for common user objectives, offering a reliable framework for designers to build upon. With a well-defined set of components and patterns, you can create a comprehensive recipe for design success that delivers consistently outstanding results across all your products and services.
Icons
One of the more significant aspects of a design system is its icons. Icons provide a fast and easy means of conveying labels, actions, and metaphors in digital interfaces. The Zeal icons feature a sleek yet friendly style, with smooth rounded corners and simple aesthetics. The Zeal icons offer flexibility and a polished visual appearance.
Content Design & Strategy
While there has been some pathbreaking development around visual design, the importance of content design & strategy has been understated for much of this time. Words are the means by which a brand communicates with its audience. The standard of communication defines the brand personality and hence, words and the form of language must be chosen carefully.
Voice & tone
Incedo’s culture is driven by diversity, equity, and inclusivity. These values are the essence of our brand personality and reflect in our voice. Our communication is driven by optimism, practicality, and sheer boldness. Our tonality promotes inclusivity in language and totally shuns any words, phrases, or tones that may express bias, stereotypical, or discriminatory views toward certain groups of people. This clarity constantly reflects in our voice and tone, enabling a consistent and authentic user experience.
Within these guidelines, we are flexible in our approach to communication, interacting with different tones and figures of speech as per the need of the platform and the several situations within the platform. Our incessant research into several digital platforms, the human psyche, and user journey and experience have enabled us with an understanding of when to be serious and direct and when to adopt a more relaxed tone. Ultimately, a top-notch user experience is at the center of our thought when designing the content.
Balancing clarity and conciseness
Simplifying a user’s journey through a platform is fraught with challenges since every stage isn’t the same and requires differential treatment. Early recognition of this helps us to ensure that we are more descriptive, albeit at the cost of conciseness, in stages that are complex and difficult to understand while keeping the content very concise and direct through the screens which are simpler. We keep users informed of their current position in the journey so as to keep them from feeling lost.
Such gradient content design is brought about by being empathetic towards the user’s frustration and pain points. Encouragement through effective content strategy in form of tooltips, waypoints, and interactive walkthroughs at appropriate places encourages the user to continue and explore the platform to their benefit.
Incedo Zeal in Essence
These principles are intended for anyone at Incedo who engages in customer-facing communication, including product managers, content writers, UX designers, developers, or engineers. We adhere to our voice and tone across all our channels and properties, from in-product interfaces to error messages and menus.
We utilize these principles to inform and build trust with our users. By being transparent and clear about product experiences, we provide the necessary information without overwhelming the users with irrelevant or redundant details.
Ultimately, the Zeal design system complements the brand’s focus on simplicity, with a sleek and refined visual language incorporated throughout the UI. The design is consistent across both light and dark themes, and every aspect has been designed with careful attention to detail. The eventual outcome of this design approach is an interface that not only looks aesthetically pleasing but is also functional and serves the needs and goals of the user. Additionally, it aligns with the overall brand of Incedo and takes into consideration the user’s perspective and experience. In a nutshell, Zeal is a comprehensive solution designed to produce clean, minimalistic digital products in the Incedo ecosystem.
