4 ms·

The term "design system" made a great career in a very short time. It wasn't really coined until 2016.

astroalex 5y ago
That's not correct. A quick search using Google's Ngram viewer shows that "design system" peaked in 1986, and had quite a long history before that too, starting in the 1960s. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=design+system&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdesign%20system%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=design+system&...
- warpech 5y ago
  Are you sure about the meaning though? Afaik, it started to be used in the context of UX/UI starting from the book "Atomic Design". That is also the earliest reference in the Wikipedia article. Of course, there were systems in graphic design used earlier [1], but before 2016, the thing in the OP would be called "The US Web Design Patterns" or "...Language" or "...Toolkit" or "...Library", for the lack of a common term. [1] http://assets.runemadsen.com/classes/programming-design-systems/a-history-of-design-systems/index.html http://assets.runemadsen.com/classes/programming-design-syst...
  - astroalex 5y ago
    I'm not sure I understand the distinction you're drawing between UX/UI and graphic design. To me it seems obvious that the concept of a "design system" has been around for a while and has been applied universally in many sub-fields of design. It doesn't seem super relevant whether or not there is a CSS/JS framework to support a design system — that seems more like an implementation detail.
gherkinnn 5y ago
Nope, I've worked with and on design systems since 2010. And Brad Frost's Atomic Design [0], a formal system for developing a design system, was first written in 2013. 0 - https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/ https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/
- warpech 5y ago
  I shall stand corrected. According to Twitter, the hashtag #designsystem started to appear in the context of UX in 2012 [1] I you used that term in 2010, you are a real pioneer. [1] https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23designsystem)%20until%3A2012-12-31%20since%3A2006-01-01&src=typed_query&f=top https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23designsystem)%20until%3A201...

That's not correct. A quick search using Google's Ngram viewer shows that "design system" peaked in 1986, and had quite a long history before that too, starting in the 1960s. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=design+system&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cdesign%20system%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=design+system&...

warpech 5y ago
Are you sure about the meaning though? Afaik, it started to be used in the context of UX/UI starting from the book "Atomic Design". That is also the earliest reference in the Wikipedia article. Of course, there were systems in graphic design used earlier [1], but before 2016, the thing in the OP would be called "The US Web Design Patterns" or "...Language" or "...Toolkit" or "...Library", for the lack of a common term. [1] http://assets.runemadsen.com/classes/programming-design-systems/a-history-of-design-systems/index.html http://assets.runemadsen.com/classes/programming-design-syst...
- astroalex 5y ago
  I'm not sure I understand the distinction you're drawing between UX/UI and graphic design. To me it seems obvious that the concept of a "design system" has been around for a while and has been applied universally in many sub-fields of design. It doesn't seem super relevant whether or not there is a CSS/JS framework to support a design system — that seems more like an implementation detail.

gherkinnn 5y ago

Nope, I've worked with and on design systems since 2010. And Brad Frost's Atomic Design [0], a formal system for developing a design system, was first written in 2013. 0 - https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/ https://bradfrost.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/

warpech 5y ago
I shall stand corrected. According to Twitter, the hashtag #designsystem started to appear in the context of UX in 2012 [1] I you used that term in 2010, you are a real pioneer. [1] https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23designsystem)%20until%3A2012-12-31%20since%3A2006-01-01&src=typed_query&f=top https://twitter.com/search?q=(%23designsystem)%20until%3A201...