Notion is the most universally helpful app. Any person or organization can organize its private and/or professional life in it. That is why it has become a must-have for every line of business, and that is also why Notion design system can significantly upgrade your work performance, being design your niche as well as any other.
If you are thinking of creating a design system for you or your team, Notion is your place because it is an incredibly simple, yet powerful option. You can create something entirely custom and even connect the other parts of your design process and tools such as Figma to simplify and supercharge your entire workflow. If you are a productivity enthusiast, you know that Notion has been making waves in the workflow world ever since it was released and that is why you have to start using the Notion design system. Here we will tell you all that you need to know about it.
What is a Design System
A design system is a collection of records, articles, examples, code snippets, screenshots, design guidelines, design patterns, elements, principles, and other digital assets for a digital product. It is generally hosted online on a platform or self-hosted website. Think of it as a collaborative environment with everything you need to design, build and market a product consistently and systematically all rolled into one place.
A design system can be used by either a team of one or a team of many. Creating one can help you make decisions more quickly and execute tasks that are repetitive more easily. Design systems often have many interlinking parts. You may have the visual and UI design assets in your design tools like Figma or Sketch, and you may have code on GitHub or a separate project management system. But what Notion allows you to do is create a central, knowledge-base-type website and store everything in one place. You can also tie together any external tools or resources you may already be using without having to move everything into Notion.
Reasons to Implement Notion Design System to Your Workflow
In this section, we will mention all the advantages of counting with the Notion design system to organize your workflow.
1. Intuitive
One of the best things about Notion is its super-organized user experience. It might take a little bit of time to get the hang of it, but once you do, organizing and building a design system can be really enjoyable and almost therapeutic. Thanks to its subfolders and pages, which are all organized in a convenient left-hand navigation menu, it is easier to move things around, find what you are looking for, add or remove elements, and adjust your design system as your company grows.
2. Accessible
Notion is a great choice for teams since it is free and browser-based, so everyone can easily access it. Just create an account and invite your team members to your workspace, and they will be able to use the design system from anywhere and on any device. It is perfect for both in-house and remote teams.
3. Free and Customizable
Notion has a ton of great features, and the best part is that you can get started and do it all for free. Plus, you can invite up to 5 members to join your workspace at no cost. And if you need more, the Team plan is just $8 a month and lets you invite unlimited users and create as many collaborative workspaces as you need. It is an excellent choice for startups looking to get organized and collaborate effectively.
Another great reason to use Notion is that it allows for flexibility in setting permissions for who can do what within the design system. For instance, you may have some members of your team that need read-only access, such as a new member of your marketing team, and others that need full read and edit access, such as product designers and developers. The thing is that you can do this on a per-page or per-section basis.
There are generally two design system collaboration models, which are the following. First, we have the centralized model, which consists of assigning a single team or team member permission to edit update and maintain the system. This configuration is a hierarchy in which the contributors are required to get approval from the Design Systems team before committing changes or making updates to the system.
Secondly, there is the distributed model, which involves giving access to several members or several teams. Allowing everyone to be more hands-on and involved in the creation and maintenance of the design system. It is up to you and your team to discuss the structure and the rules that are best suited to the way you work as you embark on the creation of the system.
3 Tips for Your Notion Design System
Here are some effective and simple tips to help you get started with your Notion design system development. These directions are all about doing some research beforehand, knowing what you want to accomplish, and making sure your communication is crystal clear.
1. Work Together
It is key to make sure that the right people have access to and can edit your design systems. Notion makes it easy to set up separate areas for each department to access the resources they need.
2. Learn About the Features
Investing some time to learn about the high-quality features will make your Design System even better and more efficient. Some examples are page linking and multi-row editing. You should give them a go and see how they can improve your work.
3. Inspiration
If you are new to Notion and digital project management, it can seem overwhelming at first. But once you get the hang of it, you will feel like you have unlocked a secret code for boosting productivity. To get started, we recommend you watch some tutorials on YouTube.
Conclusion
Now you know how and why to use the Notion design system and implement it in your workflow. By doing this, it is most likely that as your organization increases, so will the level of your performance and thus your revenue.
