A design system is a single source of truth that combines reusable UI components, design tokens, patterns, and documentation governing how a product looks and behaves. It unifies designers and engineers around a shared component library and usage guidelines, ensuring consistency and accelerating delivery across teams and platforms. It encompasses both the visual language and the coded implementation that enforces it.
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- Design systems express decisions as design tokens (colour, spacing, type) and ship them as a versioned component library consumed by application code. Benefits include consistency, accessibility, and velocity; the chief cost is the governance and maintenance burden of keeping the system aligned with evolving product needs.