Building Design System in Figma from Scratch

What's inside

Syllabus

What are the major components and sections of a good Design System

Introduction to what is Design System, what are its benefits to design and development team and what are the outputs of Design System

What is Purpose statement in Design System and what questions we should ask before creating a Design System

How to gather your product team and hold a Design Principles meetup? Learn all about Design Principles in this lesson

What are the 7 Steps you take to build your Design System

What are components and what are good components in a Design System

Which components define a brand in Design System? What is hierarchy of Components and how to arrange components

Design System Resource files and PDF Notes

Design Systems Quiz

What are Design Tokens, their roles and how to assign values to create light and dark themes?

How to name typography scales properly in a Design System and how it works

Spacing is very important to make any UI Design dense and airy. So this lesson will talk about Vertical and Horizontal spacing system in a Design system

Color System with example of Google Material Design color system and how to name your colors and tokens properly

How Grid System and layout works in a Design System with examples

How theming works and how much independence you need to provide your design and dev teams

Let's create Design Principles and Purpose Statement page in Figma

How we use Auto Layout and Variants in Figma while creating a Design System?

How to use Figma to create a Responsive Navigation bar using Auto Layouts

How to create an advanced auto-layout Modal Window using Figma?

Understand Auto Layout and Resizing Options in Figma while creating a Design System?

How to create Typography Scales with help of Figma Plugins and then quickly rename and generate text styles with another plugin

How to build your Color System with Color Scales and separating usage of Colors

How to create buttons with different states like hover, active and disabled. Also how to use Icons and swap them quicky inside buttons

How to define and use your Grid System in Figma while creating your Design System

How to create bigger typography components like combining a heading with paragraph and more in Figma

Designing Fixed width input fields with Swap-able icons and how to have a no-icon input form field using Figma

How to create your bigger components in Figma

Creating Vertical Rhythm and Spacing system for horizontal and Vertical spacing in your Design System using Figma

What UI Design Skills you must learn next to improve your UI UX design career

Bonus lesson

Traffic lights

Read about what's good

what should give you pause

and possible dealbreakers

Focuses on Figma, which is a leading tool for UI/UX design, making it highly relevant for designers looking to streamline their workflow and enhance their skills

Explores design principles and purpose statements, which are essential for creating cohesive and user-centered design systems that align with business goals and user needs

Covers tokens, values, and theming (dark and light), which are crucial for creating adaptable and accessible design systems that cater to diverse user preferences and environments

Includes assignments to practice building a design system, which provides hands-on experience and allows learners to apply their knowledge in a practical setting

Requires using Figma plugins, which may require learners to research and vet the plugins themselves to ensure they are secure and reliable

Teaches creating design principles, which may require learners to have a basic understanding of design theory and user experience principles to fully grasp the concepts

Reviews summary

Building design systems in figma

According to learners, this course offers a highly practical and step-by-step approach to building a design system using Figma. Students frequently praise the clear explanations, particularly regarding advanced Figma features like Auto Layout, Components, and Variants. The course is often described as excellent for both beginners and those looking to solidify their understanding of design systems in a practical context. Reviewers appreciate the hands-on assignments that help reinforce learning. While the content is largely seen as valuable and directly applicable, a few reviewers mention that the instructor's English accent can sometimes be a minor challenge to understand, although this does not seem to detract significantly from the overall learning experience for most. The focus is heavily on the Figma implementation of design system principles.

Assignments aid practice and reinforce lessons learned.

"The assignments were really helpful for practicing what was taught in the lectures."

"Completing the projects helped me solidify my understanding of creating real components."

"I appreciated having practical tasks to apply the concepts immediately."

"The assignments felt relevant and useful for building my skills."

Suitable for those new to design systems or Figma features.

"As someone relatively new to design systems, this course gave me a solid foundation."

"It's great for designers who know the basics of Figma but want to master advanced features for systems."

"I didn't have prior experience with Design Systems, and this course was a perfect starting point."

"It built up my understanding from scratch, as the title suggests."

Instructor explains concepts clearly, especially Figma features.

"The instructor explains complex topics like Auto Layout and Variants in a very understandable way."

"I found the explanations clear and easy to follow throughout the course."

"His guidance made building components and styles feel much less daunting."

"Even though English isn't his first language, I could generally understand the concepts he taught."

Learn design systems by building in Figma step-by-step.

"This course provides a practical, step-by-step guide to building a design system directly within Figma."

"I really appreciated the hands-on approach and seeing exactly how to create components and use Auto Layout in practice."

"The course focuses heavily on the technical implementation in Figma, which is exactly what I needed."

"It showed me how to use Figma's features like Variants and Components effectively for a design system."

Instructor's English accent occasionally hard to follow.

"Sometimes the instructor's accent made it a little difficult to understand certain words or phrases."

"While the content is great, I occasionally had to replay sections due to the language barrier."

"The English isn't always perfectly clear, but I could still grasp the technical information."

"It wasn't a major issue for me, but it's something to be aware of."

Activities

Be better prepared before your course. Deepen your understanding during and after it. Supplement your coursework and achieve mastery of the topics covered in Building Design System in Figma from Scratch - UI UX Mastery with these activities:

Read 'Atomic Design' by Brad Frost

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Understand the atomic design methodology to build robust and scalable design systems in Figma.

View Atomic Design on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of 'Atomic Design'.
Read the book, taking notes on key concepts.
Reflect on how to apply these concepts in Figma.

Practice Figma Auto Layout

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Reinforce your understanding of Figma's Auto Layout feature, which is crucial for creating responsive and adaptable components.

Browse courses on Auto Layout

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Review Figma's documentation on Auto Layout.
Create several components using Auto Layout.
Experiment with different Auto Layout settings.

Design System UI Audit

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Conduct a UI audit of an existing website or application to identify inconsistencies and areas for improvement, preparing you for building your own design system.

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Choose a website or app to audit.
Document all UI elements and patterns.
Identify inconsistencies and areas for improvement.
Present your findings in a report.

Four other activities

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Show all seven activities

Document Design Principles

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Articulate clear and concise design principles that will guide the development of your design system, ensuring consistency and usability.

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Brainstorm potential design principles.
Refine and document each principle.
Share your principles with peers for feedback.

Read 'Refactoring UI' by Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger

Show steps

Improve your understanding of UI design principles to create visually appealing and effective components for your design system.

View Melania on Amazon

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Obtain a copy of 'Refactoring UI'.
Read the book, focusing on practical tips.
Apply the techniques to your Figma designs.

Build a Button Component Library

Show steps

Create a comprehensive library of button components in Figma, showcasing different states, sizes, and styles, to solidify your understanding of components and variants.

Show steps

Design different button states (hover, active, disabled).
Create variants for different sizes and styles.
Document the usage of each button variant.

Contribute to a Figma Plugin

Show steps

Contribute to an open-source Figma plugin related to design systems to gain practical experience and collaborate with other designers and developers.

Show steps

Find an open-source Figma plugin project.
Identify an area where you can contribute.
Submit a pull request with your changes.

Career center

Learners who complete Building Design System in Figma from Scratch - UI UX Mastery will develop knowledge and skills that may be useful to these careers:

Design System Architect

A Design System Architect is responsible for creating, maintaining, and evolving an organization's design system. This course is specifically tailored to help you learn the practical steps involved in building a design system from scratch using Figma. The course covers essential components of a design system, including design principles, purpose statements, color systems, typography, icon systems, and grid layouts. The assignments provide hands-on experience that is crucial for anyone aiming to become proficient in design system architecture. This course would be extremely useful as it teaches major components and sections of design systems.

See salaries and explore the career path for Design System Architect

User Interface Designer

A User Interface Designer focuses on the visual elements that users interact with in a digital product. This course helps aspiring User Interface Designers understand the core principles behind creating effective and consistent user interfaces through design systems. The course emphasizes practical application within Figma, which helps you build a strong foundation in using industry-standard tools to develop components, variants, and auto layouts. By focusing on creating design principles and purpose statements, the material in this course will give you the ability to craft user interfaces that are both visually appealing and highly functional.

See salaries and explore the career path for User Interface Designer

Visual Designer

Visual Designers are responsible for the aesthetic appeal and visual elements of a product or brand. This course helps those seeking to become visual designers by offering a step-by-step guide to creating a design system, which ensures visual consistency across all platforms. The course covers how to generate color systems with color scales and color styles, create typography systems with type scales and styles, and develop icon systems. These lessons can help visual designers enhance their aesthetic skill set. The course assignments focus on practical application, which means you will gain valuable user interface design experience.

See salaries and explore the career path for Visual Designer

User Experience Designer

The User Experience Designer is concerned with the overall experience a user has while interacting with a product or service. This course can help aspiring user experience designers grasp the importance of design systems in creating seamless and intuitive user experiences. The course covers topics like design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits to build a comprehensive understanding of how design systems contribute to user satisfaction. Moreover, the lessons on color systems, typography, and spacing directly impact how users perceive and interact with interfaces, making this course highly relevant.

See salaries and explore the career path for User Experience Designer

Mobile App Designer

A Mobile App Designer specializes in creating user interfaces and experiences for mobile applications. This course is useful for Mobile App Designers as it teaches how to build design systems from scratch, ensuring consistency and scalability in mobile app designs. The course covers essential topics, including design principles, purpose statements, UI audits, color systems, typography, and icon systems. The lessons on auto layouts, components, and variants in Figma are particularly relevant for creating responsive and adaptive mobile interfaces. The assignments offer hands-on experience to build the skills needed for mobile app design.

See salaries and explore the career path for Mobile App Designer

Interaction Designer

An Interaction Designer focuses on how users interact with digital products, ensuring that interfaces are intuitive and engaging. This course may be useful to Interaction Designers because of the exploration of design systems, which are essential for creating consistent and predictable interactions. The modules on auto layouts, components, and variants in Figma directly contribute to the ability to design dynamic and responsive interfaces. Understanding how to create responsive navigation bars and modal windows can enhance the skills needed for interaction design. The course assignments are great means of fine-tuning your practical skills.

See salaries and explore the career path for Interaction Designer

Web Designer

A Web Designer plans and creates the visual layout and user experience of websites. This course is useful because it teaches you how to create design systems, ensuring consistency and efficiency in web design projects. The course focuses on practical skills with Figma, covering topics like components, variants, auto layouts, color systems, typography, and grid systems. The assignments provide hands-on experience in creating design principles and purpose statements, which are essential for any web designer. This course emphasizes the importance of theming and responsive design.

See salaries and explore the career path for Web Designer

Product Designer

A Product Designer is involved in the entire design process of a product, from initial concept to final implementation. This course may be useful to Product Designers as it helps build a strong foundation in design systems, ensuring consistency and scalability across all product interfaces. The course covers design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits, all of which are crucial for creating effective product designs. The practical exercises in Figma, including the creation of color systems, typography, and components, are directly applicable to product design workflows. This course focuses on the importance of collaboration between design, development, and marketing teams.

See salaries and explore the career path for Product Designer

User Interface Consultant

User Interface Consultants advise organizations on how to improve their user interfaces for better user engagement and satisfaction. This course can help individuals learn the principles and practical aspects of creating effective design systems, which is a core element of UI consulting. The course covers design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits, enabling you to assess and improve existing user interfaces. The hands-on Figma exercises, including creating color systems, typography, and components, gives you the practical skills needed to implement consulting recommendations. This course helps you to understand theming and responsive design.

See salaries and explore the career path for User Interface Consultant

User Interface Engineer

A User Interface Engineer works at the intersection of design and development, translating design concepts into functional user interfaces. This course will give UI engineers a deep understanding of design systems from a design perspective, facilitating smoother collaboration with designers. The course provides insights into design principles, UI audits, and the creation of design tokens for theming. These skills will allow you to implement designs more effectively. The course also helps you build a practical understanding of how components, variants, and auto layouts work in Figma, which is useful when translating designs into code.

See salaries and explore the career path for User Interface Engineer

Design Technologist

A Design Technologist bridges the gap between design and engineering teams, often working on prototypes and interactive components. This course can help those become Design Technologists as it gives them a solid understanding of design systems from a design perspective. The course covers practical skills in Figma, including creating components, variants, and auto layouts. These lessons are directly applicable to building interactive prototypes. The course also covers design tokens, theming, and responsive design, which are essential for ensuring designs are implemented correctly. This course will promote smooth collaboration between design and engineering teams.

See salaries and explore the career path for Design Technologist

Frontend Developer

A Frontend Developer implements the visual and interactive elements of a website or application. This course may be useful to Frontend Developers as it provides a thorough understanding of design systems from a design perspective. Learning about design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits can improve collaboration between designers and developers. The course also covers practical skills in Figma that help developers better understand and implement design specifications. This course increases familiarity with design tokens, color theming, typography, and spacing systems, which are crucial for translating designs into functional code. The course can help bridge the gap between design and development.

See salaries and explore the career path for Frontend Developer

Information Architect

An Information Architect organizes and structures information within a system to ensure it is easily accessible and understandable. This course may be useful for Information Architects as it provides a foundation in design systems, which are essential for creating organized and consistent user interfaces. The course covers topics such as UI audits and the creation of design principles, which are relevant to structuring digital information. The focus on Figma skills, including components, variants, and auto layouts, can help improve how information is presented visually. This course teaches you how to enhance information architecture.

See salaries and explore the career path for Information Architect

UX Researcher

A UX Researcher conducts studies to understand user behaviors, needs, and motivations. This course may be useful for UX Researchers as it provides insights into the design process and the creation of design systems. Understanding design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits can help researchers better evaluate and understand user feedback on design elements. The hands-on exercises in Figma can provide researchers with a better understanding of the practical aspects of design. This course promotes empathy and collaboration between researchers and designers.

See salaries and explore the career path for UX Researcher

Product Manager

A Product Manager guides the development and strategy of a product, working with various teams to bring it to market. This course may be useful for Product Managers as it provides a thorough understanding of design systems, which are essential for creating consistent and scalable products. The course covers topics such as design principles, purpose statements, and UI audits, which can help product managers make informed decisions about product design. The focus on practical Figma skills can enhance communication and collaboration with design teams. This course increases product success through effective design management.

See salaries and explore the career path for Product Manager

Reading list

We've selected two books that we think will supplement your learning. Use these to develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered in Building Design System in Figma from Scratch - UI UX Mastery.

Atomic Design

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Provides a comprehensive guide to creating and maintaining design systems using an atomic approach. It breaks down interfaces into fundamental building blocks, making it easier to manage complexity and ensure consistency. Reading this book will give you a solid understanding of the principles behind modular design and how to apply them in Figma. It is considered a must-read for anyone serious about design systems.

Building Design System in Figma from Scratch - UI UX Mastery

What's inside

Syllabus

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Reviews summary

Building design systems in figma

Activities

Career center

Reading list

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