Whether you’re an old hand at launching products or just getting started, every project is different in structure, scale, and goals. Part of our job at HQ is helping teams understand where to invest their time—and where they don’t need to. When it comes to product design, design systems are often a big part of that conversation.
What is a design system and how long does it take to create?
A design system is a library of reusable, adaptable components and styles that designers and developers pull from when building new features and screens. The big benefit? Consistency. Design systems help keep both design and development aligned as a product grows.
The tradeoff is that the initial setup takes more time, but once it’s in place, it can dramatically speed up future work by relying on predefined patterns instead of reinventing the wheel every time.
The time investment can vary widely—from a handful of hours for a small launch to hundreds of hours for an enterprise product with a dedicated systems team. A few things that heavily impact effort:
- Number of components. Pretty self-explanatory, but we’ll call it out anyway: 10 components take less time than 50.
- Component complexity. Things like buttons and inputs are simpler to build and maintain than tables, charts, or complex data visualizations.
- Number of modes. Light mode, dark mode, high contrast modes. Each mode requires dedicated design time and validation across every component.
Does my product actually need a design system?
Design systems can be incredibly useful—but they’re not always necessary. They take time to build and maintain, so it’s not a given that every product needs one. Here are a few things we look at when making a recommendation.
What type of product is it?
This one’s usually pretty clear. Is your product UI-heavy, like a web or mobile app with lots of interaction? Or is it more focused on visual storytelling, like a marketing website?
If you’re mostly dealing with brand and marketing pages, you probably don’t need a full design system yet. If you’re building a product with lots of screens, states, and user flows, a design system may be worth the investment.
What’s the current—or future—scale?
Design systems work best when products are complex or evolving quickly. Some questions we’ll usually ask:
- How many screens does your product have? Do those screens have multiple states?
- How many designers, developers, or teams are involved? More hands usually means more need for shared standards.
- How often are new features being added?
- Do you need to support multiple modes, like light and dark?
The goal here is balance. Will a design system save time and reduce friction in the long run? Or will it slow things down without enough payoff yet?
What’s the budget?
Not glamorous, but always important. For smaller budgets, it often makes more sense to focus time on polishing core features instead of building a full system from scratch. The good news: design systems can always be introduced later as a product grows.
Prebuilt vs. custom design systems
One way to get the benefits of a design system without the full upfront cost is to start with a prebuilt UI library.
Prebuilt libraries are free or paid products that act as start kits for design and development. They come with ready-to-use components that can be customized with your brand’s colors, fonts, and styles.
The upside is twofold:
- They speed up current work by handling the basic design and code, so teams can focus on higher-level decisions.
- They make future work easier, since designers and developers are already familiar with the underlying system.
As you might guess from our enthusiasm, this is what we recommend for most clients who need a design system. Our current favorite is shadcn/ui. That said, some products have such a unique vision that a custom system makes more sense. It’s absolutely doable—just with a bigger investment of time and effort.
So… should you build one?
The right approach depends on your product, your team, your timeline, and your budget. Sometimes a lightweight system is exactly what you need. Other times, it’s better to keep things flexible and revisit later.
Our job is to help you make that call—so you’re building what your product actually needs, not just what sounds good on paper. If you’re unsure where you fall, that’s totally normal. Let’s talk it through.
