Build a Company Design System - Course Introduction

Which technologies we will be using in this course

Build a Company Design System - Course Overview

What are Design Systems and Why are They so Popular?

How to think of design systems and model them appropriately

Pace Layering and Atomic Design System Mental Models

How to convert a Figma file to requirements

How to Turn a Figma Design System Into Code

Introduction

Module 2 Introduction

How to structure a design system monorepo

How to Structure a Design System Monorepo

Using yarn workspace to create a monorepo

Using Yarn Workspaces to Create a Monorepo

How to Build a Dynamic Design System With TypeScript

Create ESLint and Prettier Configs for a Design System

Design System Monorepo

Module 3 Introduction

How to Work With and Structure Design Tokens

Transforming raw design tokens with Style Dictionary

A Guide to Transforming Design Tokens with Style Dictionary

Creating a Tailwind CSS preset with JavaScript design tokens

Creating Tailwind CSS Presets With Design Tokens

Using `tsc` to build the foundation package

Building the foundation

Foundation package

Module 4 Introduction

Setting up the react component library package

Setting Up A React Component Library for Design Systems

How to Write React Components for a Company Design System

React package

Module 5 Introduction

Developing the component library with Storybook

Setting Up Storybook for Company Design Systems

Using Storybook to document our component library

Creating Your First Stories in Storybook

Storybook controls and Accessibility addon panel

Controls and A11y testing

Storybook package

Module 6 Introduction

Styling React components with JavaScript design tokens

How to Style React Components With Design Tokens

Styling React components with Tailwind CSS preset

How to Use Tailwind CSS With JavaScript Design Tokens

Styling components

Module 7 Introduction

Using React Testing Lirary to test React components

React Testing Library - Install and Write Your First Test

Finding accessibility issues using AXE with Jest

Using jest-axe to Find Accessibility Issues in React Components

What is Visual Testing and How Does it Work?

Testing components

Module 8 Introduction

What are Changesets and How Do They Manage Versioning?

How to test & publish our packages from CI (Github Actions)

How to Setup a CI/CD Pipeline in GitHub Actions

CI, Changelogs and Publishing

Thank you 🙏

Summary

In this course, we will dive into the world of design systems. We will learn how they can help developers increase their productivity, create consistency across a company's products, and ultimately speed up the development process.

We will start by covering the fundamental concepts of design systems, then move on to the architecture of a monorepo codebase. We will set up shared configurations for TypeScript, ESLint, and Prettier, and create a foundation package for hosting and distributing design tokens and assets.

Next, we will create a React package with demo components that are styled using our design system's style tokens. We will also create a Storybook package and learn the best practices for developing and documenting components with TypeScript. We will focus on styling our components in two ways: using CSS-in-JS with styled-components and JavaScript design tokens, as well as Tailwind CSS classes.

Finally, we will learn how to create tests for our React components using React Testing Library and AXE, and manage releases using changesets and set up a CI pipeline with GitHub Actions.

This course aims to be a comprehensive guide, or a cookbook, to building a complete company design system from scratch. By the end of the course, you will have the knowledge and skills to create a practical and maintainable design system for any organization.

This course is a comprehensive guide to publishing your first component library and design assets using React, TypeScript, Storybook, Tailwind CSS, and Styled Dictionary. You’ll create a flexible, enterprise-grade design system library that your co-workers will actually enjoy.

Build a Complete Company Design System

Transform design tokens with Style Dictionary.

Manage an enterprise design system monorepo with Yarn workspaces.

How a simple monorepo works with Yarn workspaces

What design tokens are, and how to generate them with Styled-Dictionary

Automate testing for accessibility issues (Axe) and visual changes (Chromatic)

Develop and document our design system with Storybook

How to publish with Github Actions and Changesets

How to provide a Tailwind configuration for other teams

---
title: Pace Layering and Atomic Design System Mental Models
description: How to think of design systems and model them appropriately
privateVideoUrl: https://fullstack.wistia.com/medias/pdtmgzqh6m
useMdx: true
---

import { TwoColumn, ImageCaption } from "~/components/index.js";

## What are design tokens?

Let's start with the basics; what is a design token?

The <a href="https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens/#Introduction" targe="_blank">definition from Adobe</a> (pioneer of the digital era of design):

<TwoColumn leftSection= {<blockquote>
Design tokens are all the values needed to construct and maintain a design system — spacing, color, typography, object styles, animation, etc. — represented as data.
These can represent anything defined by design: a color as a RGB value, an opacity as a number, an animation ease as Bezier coordinates.
They’re used in place of hard-coded values in order to ensure flexibility and unity across all product experiences.</blockquote>
} rightSection={<ImageCaption
imageSrc="./public/design-tokens.png"
caption={<div>Design token <a href="https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens/#Introduction" target="_blank">intro</a></div>}/>}/>

There are also three distinct categories; [**Global tokens**](https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens/#Global-tokens), [**Alias tokens**](https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens/#Alias-tokens) and [**Component-specific tokens**](https://spectrum.adobe.com/page/design-tokens/#Component-specific-tokens). In this course, we will focus on **Global tokens**.

<a href="https://uxdesign.cc/design-tokens-for-dummies-8acebf010d71" target="_blank">Louis</a> provides another definition that I really enjoy because it's easy to understand and to the point (paraphrasing):

> **Design tokens are** central and tiny pieces of UI information that will be used across several platforms during the conception of digital products.

## Having a ground truth

The centralization of our design system will eventually help with its maintenance.