A design system: why large organizations cannot do without it.

A design system is a single, central place where all the visual and technical building blocks of your digital products live. Large organizations that implement it build faster, see fewer errors, and maintain control over their digital appearance, even with dozens of teams working on it.

Yet, many large organizations still operate without one. This results in teams rebuilding the exact same elements, rebrandings that take months, and digital products that look slightly different across applications.

In this article, we explain what a design system is, what it delivers for your organization, and what it takes to implement it successfully.

What is a design system?

A design system consists of three layers that together form a cohesive whole.

The component library contains all reusable UI elements: colors, typography, buttons, forms, navigations. All of these are documented and directly usable in code. Designers and developers work from the same library, ensuring everyone always uses the same elements.

Design tokens are the core values that bind the system together: colors, typography, spacing. If you update a design token, that change automatically cascades down to all components using it. This allows you to apply a rebranding centrally without modifying every product individually.

For the visual part, many organizations work with a design tool like Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD, allowing designers and developers to work from the same library. The choice depends on the organization's technical stack and workflow. What matters is that design and code align, so that what is in the design directly matches what is being built.

It differs fundamentally from a style guide. A style guide merely describes how something should look. A design system also contains the production-ready code of those components. If you change a color, that update immediately flows through to all products using that color.

Large organizations like IBM, Google, and Airbnb have been working this way for years. In the Netherlands, the government does the same through the NL Design System. Koodin applied this exact principle at Schiphol, where dozens of applications were updated with a new brand identity from a single shared design system.

When does your organization need a design system?

You need a design system when you have multiple teams working on digital products and maintaining consistency is becoming increasingly difficult. Or when a rebranding takes months every single time. Or when developers rebuild components that have already been created before.

You can recognize this by concrete signs: teams rebuilding the same elements because no one knows they already exist; buttons and colors that vary slightly from product to product; or an acquisition or new corporate identity that disrupts the digital landscape without a shared foundation to build from.

These are the scenarios where a design system makes the biggest difference.

A design system is often part of a broader discussion around your digital platforms. You can read more about this on our page about digital platforms and user experiences.

What does a design system deliver for your organization?

The benefits are concrete and visible across multiple levels of the organization.

Faster delivery

Developers don't need to rebuild components. They take what is already there and move forward. In a controlled study by Sparkbox using IBM's Carbon design system, eight developers built the same form first from scratch and then again using the design system. The second version was 47% faster, even including the time to learn the system.

Consistent digital brand experience

All digital products look and feel the same, regardless of which team worked on them. During a rebranding, you update the design system via the design tokens, and the change instantly applies to all products. No more manual updates or inconsistencies.

Lower costs

Teams do less double work and make fewer mistakes. In practice, teams report 20 to 40% faster implementation times once a mature component library is in place. In an environment with multiple teams, a design system typically pays for itself within six to twelve months.

Digital accessibility

Large organizations are legally required to make their digital products and services accessible through the European Accessibility Act. New products had to comply with WCAG guidelines by June 28, 2025. A design system helps directly with this: components are tested for accessibility centrally, meaning any team building from the design system automatically builds accessibly. Read more about what this requirement entails in our article on the WCAG requirement.

Less reliance on external agencies

With a well-structured design system, internal teams can develop independently. They don't need to hire an external agency to build the foundation for every new product.

Why implementation in large organizations is complex

Large organizations introducing a design system almost always run into the same challenges. These are:

Multiple teams with their own workflows

Over the years, every team has built its own components, came up with its own naming conventions, and developed its own way of working. A design system requires everyone to switch to a shared component library and use the same design tokens. That is not just a technical shift, but also an organizational one. Teams must be convinced of the added value before they are willing to adapt their trusted ways of working.

In our project at Schiphol, this was one of the greatest challenges. Dozens of applications, managed by different teams, partly built on outdated code that barely used the central component library. We worked together with all those teams to roll out the new corporate identity without disrupting existing processes. Clear alignment and tight communication were just as important as the technical implementation itself.

Legacy code that needs to be replaced

In large organizations, digital products are rarely built on a uniform technical foundation. There are old components, outdated frameworks, and legacy code that no one fully understands anymore. Implementing a design system means tackling this legacy while keeping existing products running.

Adoption and governance take time

A design system only works if everyone uses it. Without clear governance—with agreements on who manages components, who approves changes, and who decides on new additions—the system will naturally dilute. If teams perceive it as an extra burden instead of a helpful tool, they will find workarounds. Then you end up with a design system on paper, but not in practice.

How to start with a design system

Start by listening. Talk to the designers and developers who work with the existing products every day. What pain points do they face? Which components do they keep rebuilding? Where do most inconsistencies occur? Those answers determine where you begin.

Next, inventory which components appear most frequently in your current products. Buttons, forms, navigations, typography. These are the elements where you will get the quick wins. Build those well first, document them clearly, and make sure teams actually start using them. Only then do you build further.

Define early on who owns the design system. Who is responsible for implementing changes? Who guards the quality? Who decides when a new component is added? Without clear ownership, a design system will inevitably fall apart.

At DataSnipper, we approached this step-by-step. The company had over 500,000 users in 170 countries and was facing a complete overhaul of their visual identity. There was no room for an approach where everything changed at once. In collaboration with The Verve, we developed a modular design system consisting of libraries for base, website, and social media. This gave the marketing and development teams a shared foundation to work from, ensured brand consistency, and streamlined the collaboration between design and development.

Our approach

We step directly into your team and take responsibility. We don't just work on the technical implementation, but also ensure that all involved teams are aligned and that quality is guaranteed. In large organizations with multiple teams and legacy systems, this is at least as important as the technology itself.

Meanwhile, we actively build your team's knowledge, so they can continue independently afterward. We don't build something that only we understand.

When the project is finished, we ensure a smooth handoff. This way, your organization can move forward on its own strength.

Curious about what a design system can deliver for your organization?

Does your organization work on multiple digital products, and do you want to know if a design system fits your situation? Get in touch with Maarten.

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