UND - Episode 12

Unrequested design news

To grow, we must forget, but AI remembers everything; here’s how to keep evolving while still using it.

Unrequested UX/UI mini-lessons

ROI of design system

Creating a design system requires an initial commitment. Imagine your design and development teams dedicate a portion of their time to build a cohesive set of reusable components and guidelines. This phase might take several months, during which productivity could dip slightly as efforts focus on establishing the system.​

Once the design system is in place, the benefits start to unfold:

• Efficiency Gains: Teams can reuse components, reducing the time needed to design and develop new features.​

• Consistency: A unified design language ensures a consistent look and feel across all products, enhancing user experience.​

• Scalability: As your product grows, the design system allows for quicker adaptations and expansions without reinventing the wheel.

Calculating the return on investment (ROI)

To understand the financial impact, consider both the costs (time and resources invested) and the gains (time saved and increased productivity). While the initial setup requires effort, studies have shown significant efficiency improvements post-implementation. For instance, some teams have reported up to a 50% increase in design efficiency and a 25% boost in development speed.​

A formula to calculate the ROI (Return on Investment) of a Design System in a simple, logical way:

ROI = (Time Saved - Time Invested) / Time Invested

Let’s break it down in easy terms:

• Time Invested = the total time your team spends building the design system (designers + developers).

• Time Saved = the time your team saves after the system is in place — thanks to reusable components, faster workflows, and fewer decisions to make from scratch.

Example:

Let’s say:

• Your team spends 1,000 hours creating the design system.

• After it's in place, your team or department (designers and developers) saves 3,000 hours over a year.

Now plug it into the formula:

ROI = (3,000 - 1,000) / 1,000 = 2

🎉 That means your return is 2x the time you invested — or 200% ROI.

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I'm Alessandra Stagno, a Lead Product Designer from Italy, now based in the Netherlands, with over 10 years of experience in Product Design – not the physical kind, though. The UX and UI kind. Yes, because in Italy, people think you make chairs if you say you’re a Product Designer. Never made chairs – unfortunately. But give me a horrible website or software with a questionable user experience, and you’ll find me in a room fixing it, saying: “Oooh! Now it’s clean, and I understand what I’m supposed to do, let’s test it!”