Say you have a design system and you’re having a moment where it doesn’t have what you need. You need to diverge and create something new. Yesenia Perez-Cruz categorizes these moments from essentially ooops to niiice:
There are three kinds of deviations that come up in a design
system:
- Unintentional divergence typically happens when designers can’t find the information they’re looking for. They may not know that a certain solution exists within a system, so they create their own style. Clear, easy-to-find documentation and usage guidelines can help your team avoid unintentional variation.
- Intentional but unnecessary divergence usually results from designers not wanting to feel constrained by the system, or believing they have a better solution. Making sure your team knows how to push back on and contribute to the system can help mitigate this kind of variation.
- Intentional, meaningful divergence is the goal of an expressive design system. In this case, the divergence is meaningful because it solves a very specific user problem that no existing pattern solves.
We want to enable intentional, meaningful variation.
This is an excerpt from her book Expressive Design Systems on A Book Apart, the same publishers as the incredible iconic book Practical SVG.
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i0.wp.com/css-tricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/expressive.png?resize=2478%2C1010&ssl=1)
And while we’re linking up books about design systems, check out Andrew Couldwell’s Laying the Foundations.
System design is not a scary thing — this book aims to dispel that myth. It covers what design systems are, why they are important, and how to get stakeholder buy-in to create one. It introduces you to a simple model, and two very different approaches to creating a design system. What’s unique about this book is its focus on the importance of brand in design systems and creating documentation.
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i0.wp.com/css-tricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/foundations.png?resize=2426%2C1536&ssl=1)