A design system is a set of standards to manage design at scale. It includes reusable components and guidelines which ensure consistency across different products and platforms. It saves time and money as designers or teams don’t need to recreate elements for each project.
An effective design system ensures that every team member uses the same elements and components which improves user experience as users don’t need to learn new components and patterns which makes it easier for them to use the product. Additionally, reusable products speed up development as designers don’t have to start from scratch which also reduces errors as they follow the predefined guidelines which reduces the chances of inconsistencies this ultimately leads to a higher ROl and increased profits. A 2019 experiment by Figma revealed that designers using a design system completed their tasks 34% faster than those without one. However, to track design system metrics it’s important to keep in mind that track the metrics before the launch and measure throughout the design as it helps identify adoption barriers and opportunities for improvement before they become systemic issues. Also, set the goal that why you want to track the design system like Are you trying to increase adoption rate? Improvement in Consistency? Or User satisfaction? Your goals should inform which metrics matter most.
In this blog, we will understand why ROI and KPI are important and 5 key metrics to track.
Why measuring ROI and performance is crucial in Design Systems
Return on investment (ROI) in a design system represents the benefits gained relative to its costs like reduced cost, development time, brand consistency and improved user experience so ROI is measured by comparing these benefits to the cost. For example, if a company invests $50,000 in a design system and saves $35,000 annually in development, $12,000 in design efficiency, and $8,000 in reduced rework, plus gains $20,000 from better UX so the total benefit is $75,000 which means 50% in ROI.
It’s important to measure Return on investment (ROI) as it will becomes difficult to show its value to stakeholders which can lead to difficulty in taking support and continued investment from stakeholders as
they may not see the benefits of investment which can make them hesitant to allocate further resources. And as a design system is a long term investment so relying on assumptions rather than data driven insights can result in inefficiencies and put long term sustainability at risk as a result stakeholders confidence will lose.
However, Before diving into specific metrics, it’s crucial to establish clear key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your business and design goals as it ensures that your measurement efforts are focused, relevant and directly tied to the success of your business and design system. As in the design system, there are many metrics like adoption rates, consistency scores etc. But the challenge lies in identifying the right ones for your organisation. So it is highly advisable to outline what you need to measure within your design system and why. You should ask questions by yourself like how does it contribute to consistency across products? How does it affect user experience and satisfaction? What specific goals do you want to achieve, or what problems do you want to solve with this design system? These questions will help ensure that your KPIs are purposeful and will help in tracking relevant metrics.
As the zeroheight blog highlights that companies with design systems can experience up to a 50% faster design-to-development handoff efficiency and improvements in product consistency.
5 key Design system metrics
Design system metrics are crucial because they measure a design system’s success. Tracking key metrics shows that if the system meets goals. If not then it shows what works and what needs improvements. For example, consistency scores help assess whether the system ensures a uniform look and feel across products which leads to better design and user experience.
Below are the core metrics that designers should be aware of when building the design system;
1. Adoption rate:
Adoption rate measures how well a design system is used. It shows how many teams and designers use and how many projects use the system’s components and guidelines. It’s a basic question – How many new users have used the product or feature? To observe this, look at the rate of new users over time. When there is a high adoption rate then it means that the design system is useful and people can easily use it but if it is low adoption rate then it indicates issues like complexity, difficulty to use and lack of awareness which helps design teams to identify issues and fix it to increase usability and improve user experience. The design system survey highlights that 52% of agency respondents identified lack of adoption as a key reason for design system failures which reinforce the importance of tracking and improving adoption rates.
Without Adoption tracking, the team will not realize that adoption rate is low or people are not using it which can lead to inconsistencies and wastage of time and efforts. So it’s important to measure adoption rate as if there is a new feature so adoption tracking can help determine whether users are engaging with it or facing difficulties and if there is complexity so teams can address it quickly and can ensure that the feature adds value rather than being ignored. And apart from new features it is also important for identifying usability issues and to ensure consistency.
2. Design Consistency:
It means keeping the same look and feel across a design like on websites, apps, and printed documents. Higher consistency reduces design debt and improves user experience as using the same UI elements across all products like buttons and forms ensures that users can easily recognise and interact with them without any difficulty which reduces confusion and makes navigation more intuitive. For example, if a website uses a blue “Submit” button for submitting forms, all forms across the site should have the same blue “Submit” button rather than a different color or style. As a result, users will quickly recognise and complete their work efficiently. Like Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, which ensure that buttons, icons, and gestures work similarly across iPhones, iPads, and Macs, creating a unified experience.
Whereas, poor consistency can increase the cognitive load as when there are different icons and different colours within the interface so they have to put extra mental effort in recognising and understanding. Also, it decreases the standards which reduces users’ trust as they think that they are not valued and their experience is not a priority which can lead to frustration and low engagement. So it’s important for designers to use the same terminology for similar actions across the interface and standardise the typography, colors and imagery as Effective visual design makes interfaces appealing and easy to use which improves usability by guiding users clearly and helps users to understand information easily which builds trust and improves brand image. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, consistent design can increase user satisfaction by up to 30%.
3. Time saving:
It means comparing the average time it takes to complete a task with and without a design system and it also shows how faster designers and developers work. Design teams can spend less time creating new elements as they can reuse the components which speeds up the design and development process as a result design teams can focus on other problems. Also, consistent design reduces rework as by standardising the components and patterns design teams spend less time on decision and repeated tasks. Time savings also show how efficient the design system is at reducing the time it takes to complete tasks which leads to faster iterations and improved productivity. An internal study demonstrated that designers with access to a relevant design system completed tasks 34% faster than those without one.
Without tracking time, efficiency will not increase as design teams won’t know that they are saving time or not and if not then how they can save the time. Also, wastage of resources will increase as they may spend extra time on repetitive tasks rather than focusing on innovation as a result, project timeline may be delayed and productivity will decrease. As a result, designers should track how long it takes to design a new page and compare this before and after the design system. Also, see how fast developers build features by looking at the time difference with and without the system and if the time is saving then it’s important to show time saved in reports and presentations as this helps prove the design system’s value.
4. User satisfaction:
It measures how well a system meets user needs. High satisfaction means the design system is helpful and easy to use which can lead to high adoption rate, efficiency and it will also help to achieve the benefits of a design system like consistency, efficiency and improved collaboration. Whereas, When satisfaction is low, teams might not use the design system which can lead to inconsistent designs and extra work.
However, tracking User satisfaction helps you uncover any usability issues you may have missed like poor navigation, barriers and complexity which helps to address these issues and helps to ensure that the system is easy to navigate and is efficient. Also it makes sure that the system is actually improving the workflow for your teams. Moreover, by understanding the issues of users, businesses try to improve the product as much as they can as a result users get happy with the product or service and they recommend it to others so the business experiences growth through word-of-mouth referrals and positive reviews which builds a positive reputation.
But to track user satisfaction, design teams can conduct Surveys and questionnaires as it will allow you to gather quantitative and qualitative feedback from users typically in the form of multiple-choice questions, sentiment, or ratings and the data can be collected from a large number of users. You can ask specific questions about their experience, preferences, and satisfaction levels to identify areas for improvement. Also, Net Promoter Score (NPS) can be used to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. It is determined through a single survey question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us?” A negative score indicates that there are more detractors (unhappy users) which helps design teams to do changes and makes improvements to improve user experience and increase user engagement.
5. Cost saving:
It measures how much money is saved by a specific action like standardizing products to reduce inconsistencies and errors which reduce the cost for fixing the errors also reusing components reduce the workload as they don’t need to start the work from scratch or they don’t have to put efforts on repetitive tasks which reduce the labor cost. Efficiency also saves the cost as when the design team will be efficient then projects will be completed faster as a result there will be lower operational expenses.
Tracking cost savings helps design teams to continue investment in the design system as there will be high savings so it will allow teams to invest more to improve the system, enhance user experience and to grow business. But if the cost savings are not measured then several challenges may arise like design teams may assume that they are saving more so they might overspend on unnecessary or repetitive tasks ultimately leading to financial loss. Additionally, poor cost management can lead to budget overruns and delays in payments leading to project delays and low investment as shareholders might not trust. So by tracking cost savings, design teams can make data driven decisions which can lead to system sustainability and long term business growth. As by smashingmagazine Calculations indicate that design systems can yield an ROI of 135%, meaning a return of $2.35 for every dollar invested.
Tracking metrics for your design system is important if you want to measure effectiveness, improve team workflow and identify areas for improvement to enhance user experience. By focusing on these key metrics, design teams can make data driven decisions and can avoid errors. Utilizing a design system accelerated the development of a simple form page by 47% compared to coding it from scratch. The median development time decreased from 4.2 hours to 2 hours, even when accounting for the time developers spent familiarizing themselves with the design system.
Whereas, without tracking metrics, there will be high wastage of resources, inconsistent products and inefficiency resulting in poor user experience and decreased productivity. Furthermore, teams may struggle to demonstrate the value of the design system to stakeholders, leading to reduced support and investment. By integrating monitoring as part of an ongoing routine rather than treating it as a periodic checkup, teams can catch potential issues before they escalate.
Don’t let inefficiencies hold your design system back. Begin measuring key metrics now and drive better results. Let us know that how do you track your design system’s success?
