Design systems
The smallest useful design system
Eight colours, six text styles and nine components. Everything else can wait until the second product.
8 min read
Most teams I meet want a design system before they have a product. I start smaller: the pieces you touch every single day.
That means eight colour tokens with roles, six text styles, and nine components: button, input, select, checkbox, card, tabs, dialog, toast and table. Everything is named after what it does, not what it looks like.
When a second product arrives, the system grows from real reuse instead of guesses. It has saved my clients months.
Written at the desk on the penthouse floor. Reply to any issue of Small Batch Notes and it comes straight to me.
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Notes from shipping alone
A weekly rhythm that keeps a one-person studio calm: Monday plans, Friday demos, no meetings on Wednesdays.