The importance of a well-documented design system cannot be overstated. It is a guiding principle for providing clarity, consistency, and a shared language for designers, developers, and internal stakeholders in building digital products.
Based on my experience working in a small team and organisation, creating web-based design system documentation for internal purposes can pose challenges due to limited resources and business priorities that can slowly slip away in their backlog.
One alternative solution I came up with was to create a web-based version of the design system documentation since I had experience in front-end development. Still, it did not turn out well due to several factors
Enter Figmayo. It helps me publish my design system in Figma, creating design system web-based documentation. Here's how Figmayo helped me solve several niche problems.
Writing documentation, deploying the UI component built by the software engineers, and updating the web-based documentation take time. By then, it will be too late for the internal stakeholders to see the latest updates.
Figmayo efficiently syncs the Figma files and automatically updates the web-based documentation on the spot, allowing our internal stakeholders to see the updated design assets quickly.
While automation sits apart from the human endeavours of creativity and collaboration, it can be leveraged to quickly become an enabler. There is pleasure in tending your garden, and those calm afternoons tidying up your edges will never go away. But, removing onerous busy work means the friction of documentation maintenance will be less of an impediment. Greater visibility of your DS makes collaboration across the end-to-end of product delivery seamless and natural.
Building and maintaining the design system documentation requires resources like software engineers and tools, which can be expensive. Eventually, the business may neglect to maintain it regularly.
Figmayo eliminates the need for expensive resources to maintain the design system documentation by transforming the Figma design assets into nicely built web-based documentation.
I observed our stakeholders opening a Figma link with a distressed face as they browsed through the design system, which was simply not user-friendly for navigating and finding the design assets.
With Figmayo's web-based documentation, our stakeholders can easily find and efficiently review the design assets.
One documentation file to rule them all
Navigating through the multiple Figma files and pages is time-consuming and can lead to accessing the wrong design assets.
Figmayo allows me to sync multiple files and displays nicely on the left sidebar navigation menus, reducing the chance of browsing the wrong file and speeding things up.
Adopting Figmayo is valuable in addressing my challenges in small teams and organisations. By leveraging Figmayo's capabilities, I have kept our design system documentation up-to-date and ensured the internal stakeholders have access to the latest design system assets.
About the author
Constantino is a senior product designer working mostly with small teams and organisations in the eCommerce space. He runs a web design company in New Zealand.
