Design System

Course

From major public companies to agencies operating in the services sector, every organization must ensure consistency and efficiency in the process of designing and developing its digital products, guaranteeing an agile experience while simultaneously strengthening its brand identity. Design Systems allow us to build better frameworks more quickly and effectively. They can be useful for startups aiming to standardize and optimize the release of new features in their product, as well as for a large organization seeking to unify the language across its ecosystem of digital touchpoints, while reducing development times and costs. However, these tools are not without complexity, primarily due to the need of aligning the individuals within the digital team in order to implement and update the components.

This short course, in collaboration with Belka, aims to quickly transfer advanced knowledge on the practice of Design Systems—a foundation that must then be integrated with specific and cross-disciplinary skills within the professional world, such as expertise in UX, UI, Project Management, Product Management, and development. The program introduces the theoretical foundations and best practices necessary to employ Design Systems within your organization or for your clients’ one. Additionally, it provides the necessary tools to navigate Figma, a software that has become the industry standard for designing design systems on the design side.

Participants will develop skills to improve workflows efficiency and manage other team members involved in the process of designing the digital experience.

Structured into six modules, the training program focuses on key aspects that form the foundation of Design Systems:

• Design audit and inventory to identify inconsistencies, redundancies, and inefficiencies.
• Standardization of components.
• Creation of foundations (rules, design tokens via Figma variables, experience standards, and principles).
• Component creation using Figma.
• Documentation and organization of handoff processes.
• Maintenance of components and the Design System library.

Gallery

Didactics

Training objectives

The goals of the Design System Course are:

• Establishing theoretical foundations and best practices for implementing Design Systems in your and your clients’ company.
• Providing practical tools to the students with a focus on the functionalities of Figma, the most widely used professional software for building Design Systems.
• Offering hands-on experience through specific exercises to master tools and streamline workflow for professionals and team members involved in the digital experience design processes.

Didactic Plan

The course has a duration of 16 hours, for a total of 2 days. Classes will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Didactic Modules

MODULE 1 – DESIGN AUDIT / INVENTORY 
In a product that evolves rapidly, inconsistencies may arise over time. An array of interface elements requires careful scrutiny. In this context, the design audit represents a critical phase involving an in-depth analysis of the digital product to identify any inconsistencies, redundancies, or inefficiencies in its components.

MODULE 2 – STANDARDIZATION 
A design system where the same component is referred to in 10 different ways can be challenging to understand. Thus, this phase focuses on defining what we mean for standardization, particularly emphasizing the need to adopt consistent naming conventions during the design phase.

MODULE 3 – FOUNDATIONS CREATION 
Foundations establish the rules, standards, and guiding principles that shape the entire user experience. Thus, this is a crucial process that lays the groundwork for visual consistency and a smooth user experience.

MODULE 4 – COMPONENTS CREATION 
This phase initiates the creation of components and defines design rules. Various functionalities offered by Figma, such as booleans, variants, and instance swapping, will be used to optimize the creation of the components.

MODULE 5 – DOCUMENTATION AND HANDOFF ORGANIZATION 
To ensure our components in the design system are more than just pixels in Figma, comprehensive documentation is crucial. This documentation is advantageous for developers, providing them with all the necessary information. It also benefits other designers who will have to use the pre-existing components.

MODULE 6 – COMPONENT MAINTENANCE AND DESIGN SYSTEM LIBRARY 
Components age over time and may require alterations, sometimes not covering all cases within our product. This module addresses the challenges following the design system’s creation—how to maintain it and encourage its adoption within the team!

Title Released

Al termine del Corso verrà rilasciato l’open badge al Corso in “Design System” da POLI.design.

Employment Opportunities

Having a conscious ability to manage the construction of a Design System represents a crucial skill, not only for UX and UI Designers (actively involved in designing components) but also for Developers (responsible for contributing to the validation, update, and reuse of components, understanding the logic of application and behaviour). This short course aims to quickly structure an advanced knowledge of Design System practices, which must be integrated with specific and cross-disciplinary skills within targeted professions, such as UX/UI experts, Project Managers, Product Managers, and developers.
The course aims to provide in-depth knowledge in implementing a Design System, offering methodological and instrumental coordinates to personally lead or coordinate its implementation: a “single source of truth” that can be centralized, decentralized, or hybrid. This approach will provide your organization or clients with an updated, scalable, and coherent library of atoms, molecules, organisms, and ecosystems to create their digital touchpoints.

Admission

Requirements

The course is designed for:

• Graduates holding a high school diploma or a degree in Design, Architecture, Engineering, or humanities disciplines such as Economics and Communication Sciences, seeking to significantly integrate the use of tools into their previous professional training.
• Professionals from agencies, companies, or freelancers such as UX Designers, UI Designers, Clients, Project Managers, Digital Strategists, Developers, Account and Art Directors aiming to acquire more technical and specialized skills in designing a design system.

Candidates are required to have prior work experience in User Experience and User Interface fields, as well as a high level of proficiency in the Figma prototyping software. This workshop is suitable for those who have already created a simple component like a button using autolayout, variants, and properties in Figma.

Candidates must submit the following documents

• Copy of Tax Identification Code (Codice Fiscale) and identity document
• Brief CV outlining their professional profile

Price

The total cost of the course is €900 + IVA 22% for each student. This sum will be paid in a lump sum upon signing the agreement.

PROMO

EARLY BIRD -10%
The promotion for those who have clear ideas, know which educational path can enrich their future, and can’t wait to get back to the classroom.

Application deadline: January 7, 2025.
Deadline for sending the signed contract and the payment of the participation fee: no later than January 9, 2025.

BACK TO SCHOOL: -30%
The discount for those who have already trusted POLI.design and Polimi, and wish to return to study and build their future.

FAMILY SUPPORT: -50%
A chance to gift your siblings the encouragement they need to invest in their future.

POLI.NETWORK: -50%
A promotion designed to strengthen the bond and identity among members of the Politecnico di Milano community.

FRIEND TO FRIEND: -20%
An opportunity to gift to a friend to make education the foundation of their growth.

MORE THAN ONE: -15%
A discount for those who want to perfect their skills, for those who continually invest in education, not just once but multiple times. Thus:

• For those who purchase two Courses, the discount is equal to 15% on the participation fee of the least expensive educational path
• For those who purchase three Courses, the discount is equal to 15% on the participation fee of the two least expensive educational paths

BUSINESS BOOST
The discount designed for companies that recognize training as a crucial factor for growth.

The “Business Boost” discount provides a variable reduction on the participation fee for two or more employees in catalog courses. Specifically, the discount amounts to:

• 15% on the participation fee for the second employee’s enrollment
• 20% on the participation fee for the third employee’s enrollment
• 25% on the participation fee from the fourth employee’s enrollment onwards

Furthermore, companies that purchase more than one Course for two or more employees in the same calendar year can access an additional 10% discount on the total.

Faculty

Faculty Past editions

Eugenia Valentini
Product designer
Belka