For this blog assignment I looked at the design systems of The Guardian, Mailchimp and Apple. This was a really interesting exerecise to see how all of these companies need to be thinking very intentionally about the same basic elements—like color, grid layouts, and icons—but that across all of the companies specific elements, and reasons they are chosen, are very different. For example, I thought that it was very interesting the way that the same colors could have drastically different significances for each system. Within the design system of Mailchimp, they include red as a core color in their UI, but advise against using it too frequently, because the company does a lot of data visualization and red is often associated with negative feedback within this framework. However the design system of The Guardian also includes red, and it is used much more frequently on the site to indicate news articles (as opposed to opinion pieces, or sports). I think that the use of red is intentional, and a wise application here because it indicates that the articles associated with red are more urgent.
Overall it was interesting to break down the design systems of these companies, and I was to see how important the design systems were to help people navigate and find the information that they need. It’s so easy to overlook how important and essential these systems are, these websites—and in particular the data visualization of Mailchimp—would be completely different without them. It was surprisingly interesting to look at The Guardian’s design system. Until learning more about the conventions of web design and Jakob’s Law, I hadn’t considered why news websites look so different from other types of websites, but it’s clearly a very intentional choice to reference the traditional print layout of a news paper. Many elements of The Guardian’s design system were different from the conventions I’ve been taught so far, and that’s intentional to reference the print component of the newspaper. For example, the design system uses a serif typeface for the body copy, even though the standard for web design is usually a sans serif. I was already aware of how important design systems are for web experiences, and this exercise gives me even more reason to appreciate the hard work that goes into making a website that looks effortless and serves the user and the content.