Some reasons for not using a design system are:

- Creating and maintaining a design system is a time-intensive activity, requiring a dedicated team.
- It takes time to teach others how to use the design system.
- There may be a perception that project are static, one-off creations, which generally don't require reusable components.  

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

"Summary: A design system is a set of standards to manage design at scale by reducing redundancy while creating a shared language and visual consistency across different pages and channels."

Design Systems 101

NNG Article Reference: Design Systems 101

Some benefits of using a design system are:

- Easier replication of design and development work
- Reduced strain on design resources, allowing focus on larger, more complex problems.
- Easier communication with between cross-functional teams because a unified "design" language.
- Ensuring visual consistency across products, channels and potentially siloed departments.
- Serving as an educational tool and reference for junior-level designers and content contributors.

Why use a Design System?                                                                           

Why not use a Design System?

There are two important parts to a design system:
- The Design-System Repository
- The People who manage it - The Design-System Team

The Design-System repository mostly contains:
- A Style Guide
- A Component Library
- A Pattern Library

The Design-System team may vary in size based on the how vast the design repository is, but at a minimum, the team should include the following roles:
- 1 Interaction Designer
- 1 Visual Designer
- 1 Developer

They should collaborate to create the interaction design guidelines, visual examples, code snippets, and implementation specification.

Elements of A Design System

There are three possible approaches to using a design system:

- adopting an existing design system
- adapting an existing design system
- creating your own proprietary or custom design system.

Generally speaking, the more custom the solution is, the more time and money it will take to implement. Thus, it is important to evaluate organization needs before choosing one of the above approaches.

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