Imagine you have to create a mobile responsive table with some records from your LOB app. The initial request for it was a no-brainer. Paging and search nowadays are baked into any admin UI. Job finished! Done in an instant.
Now your teammates come back for filtering and sorting capabilities. But it's not just a set of pre-defined filters they’re looking for. They want to also be able to create their own filters on the fly.
This new request challenges your initial design decision. The “have it all in one place” situation of common admin UIs now starts to drag some pressure on your developers.
Here's the thing: With a consistent design system in place, you know in advance what your educated users will be looking for.
Starting with the end in mind and relying on software crafted from the experts in the field will get your users the satisfaction that makes their work valued.
About the author
Michael Gerzabek works with engineering teams on system architecture and developer experience in complex SaaS environments.
He writes about the architectural decisions that keep systems understandable long after the first release.