Our favorite design systems books

If you’re just getting started learning about having a design system and you want to get stuck into a book, we have some suggestions for you! Whether you’re a novice or looking to maintain your established system, there’s always something to learn.

Design System in 90 Days Workbook
Dan Mall

If you’re looking for practicality, this Workbook is the way to go! Filled with helpful information on creating your system alongside activities, templates, prompts, and more. It’ll help you lay out how to conquer your journey.

We spoke to Dan on our podcast DesignOps Island Discs, you can listen here!

Laying the Foundations
Andrew Couldwell

Laying the foundations demistify’s the process of creating, documenting, and maintaining your system. Filled with practical advice and tips, this book covers different approaches to design system models. There is a specific focus on branding and creating solid, lasting foundations for your system.

Building Design Systems: Unify User Experiences through a Shared Design Language
Sarrah Vesselov & Taurie Davis

This is one of the best if you’re just getting started! Guiding you through the first steps of getting your system organized, from you asking how even to set up a design system all the way through to measuring and maintaining its effectiveness. It’s a super easy read outlining a strategy, design language, and more.

Atomic Design
Brad Frost

An oldie, but goodie. It may be Atomic Design’s 10 year anniversary, but Atomic Designs’ approach to managing, scaling, and maintaining a design system still holds true! It helps you create robust and high-quality systems throughout your organization.

Expressive Design Systems
Yesenia Perez-Cruz

If you’re looking to create flexible and experimental systems, this is the read for you. Expressive Design Systems not only lays out how to build dependable systems, but shows you how to develop ones that accommodate change and creativity through collaboration and more!

Design Systems
Alla Kholmatova

This book takes you through all the foundations and processes you need to understand and implement to create an effective system. Split into two parts, foundations and processes. There is a focus on patterns and for developing a digital product and design language.

We want to hear what your favorite books are! What’re you reading at the moment, and what books inspired and help you on your journey? Let us know on Twitter 👏