Building a Design System in Figma
A design system is not a Figma file with a lot of components. It is a shared agreement between designers and developers about how the interface is built.
Where most component libraries go wrong
Components get built in isolation. A button component exists, a card component exists, but they were designed by different people at different times and share nothing — not spacing tokens, not color variables, not naming conventions. When a developer asks which button is primary, no one has a clear answer.
Who this course is for
Designers with at least 6 months of practical Figma experience who have shipped at least one real product. This is not a beginner course. We move fast and assume you know how auto layout works.
Token-based design
We build the system starting from design tokens: color, spacing, radius, shadow, and typography. Every component inherits from these tokens. When the brand color changes, you update one value and the entire library reflects it.
Documentation that gets read
A component with no documentation is a component that gets misused. We cover how to write usage guidelines that are short enough for developers to read and specific enough to prevent mistakes.
Handoff and maintenance
The final two weeks cover Figma-to-code handoff workflows and how to manage breaking changes in a library that multiple teams depend on. Version control for design files is covered in practical terms, not theory.
You leave the course with a fully functional starter design system you built from scratch during the program.Learning Program
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Week 1 — System architecture
Foundations, components, patterns, and documentation layers. How to structure a Figma file that scales.
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Week 2 — Design tokens
Color, spacing, and typography tokens. Setting up variables in Figma and naming conventions that match developer output.
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Week 3 — Core components
Buttons, inputs, selects, checkboxes. Building with variants, properties, and nested auto layout.
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Week 4 — Complex components
Navigation, modals, data tables, form layouts. Managing complexity without creating brittle structures.
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Week 5 — Documentation
Writing usage guidelines. Building a component page that communicates intent without a meeting.
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Week 6 — Handoff workflows
Dev Mode in Figma, token export, annotation practices. How to reduce back-and-forth with developers.
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Week 7 — Maintenance and versioning
Managing library updates, communicating breaking changes, and keeping a system alive over time.