There’s no doubt that an online design system is critical in communicating your brand’s message across multiple channels.
In the real estate industry, an effective website can help real estate agents get the edge over their competition in terms of online presence and visibility.
One important element in a truly effective website is its design system. It is a set of rules that are developed for company rebranding campaigns and enables web designers to create consistent brand and product messages.
The design system is a result of the integration or collaboration of other designers and developers.
One of the major elements in design systems is collective inputs, which is vital to the success of any design collaboration which can give you great results for your real estate rebranding campaigns.
Build and nurture professional relationships
Developing your design system can be challenging and without the buy-in of all stakeholders, it would be an uphill climb that can be frustrating and disappointing when you don’t get to realise your goals.
Your stakeholders include your team composed of your developers, designers, product managers, and every member of your creative team.
Remember that the design system will only succeed when everyone is on-board and have a unified goal and mindset.
Start by talking to each member of your team, set expectations, and share ideas on how they can contribute and make the most out of their participation.
Do not tire of setting up meetings not just as a means of updating the team regarding the progress of the project, rather as a way to join minds together to share ideas and provide valuable inputs to further improve your campaigns.
Set clear expectations regarding design principles
Now that you have rallied your team, the next step is to present a vision about the project along with your desired design vision.
Align your goals with every member of the team and formulate your design principles with your goals and needs focused on attracting and appealing to your target audience.
The more specific you share your ideas, the better. This is a way to prevent team members from getting confused. One good way to calibrate your design principles is to conduct a basic design workshop so everyone is aware of your design process and how to go about it.
Always be the catalyst in keeping your team focused and adaptable to projects developments
Any design system project can get amazing and faster results when the team is dedicated, that includes you as the leader who dedicates their entire time to get things done and rally the team to focus on the prize.
Remember that there will be a lot of high-level conceptual work in design systems, which means that you need to keep the team focused on the project and when possible, avoid distractions that can disrupt the flow and cause problems along the way.
Develop multiple and dynamic foundations that allow adaptability for changes at scale
This can be the tricky part because it is at this stage of the project that you start to find the right balance in focusing on what works and discarding anything that does not.
Robust foundations are ideal, where the team can take advantage of reusable styles and symbols should there be a need to make changes. Use the same design elements as the base structure for the system to maintain consistency and uniformity.
For short projects, be ready to execute redundant large-scale modifications with haste and minimal effort. The same process should also be similar for using colour tones, patterns, and palettes.
Maintain a set standard
In developing design systems, there are no specific manuals that anyone can pick up and read when something is not clear or confusing to any team member.
Set an “unwritten” standard that will carry your signature in the design system. Remember that design systems are made for developers and designers as well, so make sure that they can visually communicate to them. Avoid being too dependent on third-party plugin lest you have more difficulty making changes or may not be dynamic enough to realise your design principles and styles.
Make it client-friendly
Make sure that your product can be tested and tangible for your client. It must be designed to integrate with your client’s broader network where people and other systems will be compatible with it.
Do a test run, allow people to assess your product, and be open to feedback on how it blends well with them or if it appeals to the target audience.
Strengthen what works and adjust what’s not
Learning and gathering ideas from other successful design systems is always a great way to gauge your product.
Be ready to accept if your concepts are not performing as it should be and be ready to make changes to improve the current set-up.
Identify the strong points and nurture them, while you isolate the weak points and apply changes to make them work.