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Assuming the token value has been set for the element or some ancestor element, the value of the token embedded in the stylesheet will be the token value for that element instance. A Design Token is a semantic, named variable used to describe a Design System. They often describe design concepts like typography, color, sizes, UI spacing, etc. FAST encourages checking out the Design Tokens Community Group for more information on Design Tokens themselves. To build a token-based design system in the company, I recommend using the Figma Tokens plugin.
Creating a style guide
This standard also wouldn’t try to solve the extremely complex problems of how to name the colors themselves. ABB Ltd., an automation company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, used design tokens as part of its brand-new design system. The purpose of creating a design system was to give every one of ABB’s software products a consistent look and feel. Due to his extensive experience in product design, Abdul Sial took the lead in creating a library of UI components that could be used to design at scale. Sial and other team members decided to use Figma software to create the design system, making it easy to create as much documentation as possible. With design tokens, you have more control over the design process.
Figma adds new developer tools to help designers and devs get along better at last - TechRadar
Figma adds new developer tools to help designers and devs get along better at last.
Posted: Thu, 22 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Values with a 'createCSS' method
Design systems evolve over time and so do the platforms they are built on. Figma has only a basic versioning, so we need to be careful with changes. But there are some techniques to make sure we don’t release updates that break consumers Figma projects. You build a design system based on tokens, upload them to a JSON file and use it alone for all platforms. Now that you covered the basics of design tokens and their benefits, let’s go through 6 vital steps to create them. It can be done in multiple ways, depending on the hierarchy of your tokens, the team setup, the level of visibility you’d like to create, etc.
✔️ Design tokens increase consistency
Design Tokens are named entities that represent atomic design values, and convey design decisions. As digital products get more complex, designers and engineers must find solutions to integrate workflows–a problem UXPin has solved with our revolutionary Merge technology. Import your design system’s components or an open-source component library with UXPin Merge to create a single source of truth across your organization. Learn more about Merge and how to request access to this revolutionary design technology.
(Atlassian employees only) Use the Figma plugin convert old design files to use design tokens, and to convert your designs to dark mode. A good example of a design token is the alias token used to manage dark mode and light mode. These modes are available on desktop computers, laptops, iOS devices, and Android devices, but you probably haven’t given much thought to how they work. When a user chooses dark mode, your tokens make it possible to swap from the light mode color scheme to the dark mode color scheme with just a click or a tap. To go even further, this link between our design and developments tools would allow design teams to update core styles in their design tool and see the result automatically synchronized in the design system.
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You can reuse these color values throughout the design and development process to ensure consistency across the user interface. The way design tokens are named and architected and the way the workflow is set up between design and the dev tools is all rapidly evolving. Every organization has a unique way of defining and working with tokens. The W3C Group is working towards creating the standards around i. And a host of tools are being created to streamline the workflow. While different design teams can develop different methodologies for design tokens, we’ll start with the types that Adobe uses for the Spectrum design language.
Aliasing Design Tokens
The plugin uses standardized naming conventions, eliminating the need for designers and other collaborators to keep track of token names. Topias Saari, a student at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, helped create the design tokens and implement them into the overall UX system. Saari notes that the use of design tokens has allowed ABB employees to discuss design attributes in the same terms, making it easier to collaborate. For example, you can use “colorPrimary” value for the background of a button, the border color of a form input field, and the text color of a heading. By defining these colors as design tokens, designers and developers can easily change the user interface’s color scheme without manually updating each element. Although it’s possible to create new products without design tokens, doing so takes a lot more time — and it can add to your frustration as a product designer.
Component-specific names
Lay out all the components currently in the system on a whiteboard, including variants and the different properties. Then, bucket these components into similar groups, for example, controls, feedback & indicators, actionable, containment, etc. We’ve found that there are 3 levels of token models that can be defined. Most teams are likely already using tokens in their system, and this is a great start to drive consistency by defining reusable reference values rather than raw values. We say this is only a start because adding additional layers to your token structure will better prepare your system for scale.
From Figma to code with the Figma Tokens plugin
1 Open jsoncrack.com2 Copy your .json file to the editor.3 Voilà, you can see the whole structure. In short, design tokens are the backbone of your design system. They keep your brand's visual style consistent and easy to manage. Most teams will spend most of their time at this level of token maturity—and that’s ok!
This requires a significant time investment as you build your token library, decide on names for each token, and work to keep everyone else updated on your progress. You’ll also need to set aside time for making updates, so make sure you have the support you need to dedicate some of your time to token maintenance. Design tokens are named entities that store visual design attributes in an agnostic, human-readable abstraction of visual styles that sync with all the style files in the system.
Design tokens are the new way to apply visual foundations in Atlassian product experiences. We’re rolling out tokens to standardize colors, elevations, spacing, and other styles in Atlassian products. Design tokens are a single source of truth to name and store design decisions for Atlassian product experiences. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about how to do this, here’s a tip to get started.
Design tokens provide a standard way to define and manage design properties, such as colors, typography, and spacing. By standardizing these properties, designers can ensure consistency across a user interface and reduce the risk of errors or inconsistencies. They can also act as a shared language between designers and developers, allowing them to communicate and collaborate more efficiently. Figma’s design token system is a potent tool for creating and managing design systems, enabling designers and developers to work together in a harmonius way.
Depending on how distinct the consolidated design decisions need to be, the semantic tokens can be defined to be more specific to allow stricter design changes. This will increase the number of tokens in the semantic layer but will make the system easier to maintain while providing the flexibility to handle design edge cases. We can use these tokens to create reusable design components that can be easily modified and reused across a user interface. By creating a set of design tokens for each element, designers and developers can quickly adjust the component’s design while maintaining consistency with the rest of the user interface.
Dribbble offers high-quality courses to help you learn design systems and make yourself more marketable as a product designer. To learn more about building and scaling design systems, sign up for our 8-week Scaling Design Systems Course with Dan Mall, product designer, founder, and design systems pioneer. As Systems designers, it is our duty to optimize at scale the experiences of Designer and Developers when consuming our product; the system itself. Design Tokens are used in place of hard-coded values and variables in order to ensure flexibility and unity across all product experiences and/or platforms. They are also platform-agnostic so it makes it easier to communicate with developers using these terms.
For example, if a product changes its typeface from Montserrat to Roboto, the team only has to update the typography token to implement a product-wide change. Design tokens allow teams to speak the same language, no matter their role, platform, programming language, or responsibilities. The design system revolution of the last decade has brought with it all sorts of tools and strategies to enhance product development workflows. While a design token isn’t something you visually see in the creation of a website or app, it can create the aesthetic harmony that makes it work seamlessly. It takes a committed team implementation to make them work because they are only as powerful as the code allows for. Brent then went ahead and created a theme specification to solve this very problem.
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