The best design system examples in 2025 go beyond solving basic design challenges — they inspire innovation, foster collaboration, and deliver exceptional user experiences across an ever-expanding range of platforms.
In the age of rapidly evolving digital experiences, users expect seamless and consistent interactions — whether they’re browsing on a desktop, navigating an app on their phone, or interacting with emerging technologies like augmented reality.
From industry giants setting new standards to emerging brands showcasing fresh approaches, we’ve curated a list of standout system design examples for 2025, including those from industry leaders like Google, IBM, and Apple. Let’s explore what makes these systems remarkable and what you can learn from their success.
Table of Contents
What is a Design System?
A design system is a comprehensive collection of reusable components — buttons, form fields, navigation menus, typography styles, and color palettes — guided by clear standards and documentation. These components are designed to be modular, flexible, and easily assembled to create consistent, high-quality user interfaces across various applications and platforms.
More than just a library of UI elements, a design system serves as a single source of truth for both design and development teams. It ensures everyone is on the same page, using the same building blocks and adhering to the same design principles, rules, and standards. Utilizing design systems ensures consistency across all products and platforms, streamlines workflows, and boosts efficiency.
Core Elements of a Design System
The best examples of design systems are built on several foundational elements, each critical in ensuring consistency, scalability, and collaboration across design and development teams. Here are the core components that define effective design systems in website:
- Style Guide: Defines the visual language, including color palettes, typography, spacing, and imagery, ensuring a cohesive aesthetic across all designs. For example, it specifies font pairings, spacing grids, and primary versus secondary color usage.
- Component Library: Provides a collection of reusable UI elements (e.g., buttons, icons, forms, dropdowns) designed for consistency and efficiency in building interfaces. A typical component library might include responsive website design elements such as space-optimized navigation bars, intuitive buttons, and adaptable form fields.
- Pattern Library: Documents best practices for UI design and interactions, ensuring uniform and intuitive user experiences. For instance, it might define interaction rules for hover states, modals, or onboarding flows.
- Brand Guidelines: Aligns the design system with the overall brand identity, ensuring consistency across platforms and touchpoints. This includes logo usage, tone of voice, color hierarchy, and rules for adapting branding to different mediums.
- Code Frameworks: Includes developer tools and code libraries to translate design components into functional, scalable elements. Examples include pre-built React components or CSS frameworks like Tailwind.
- Documentation: Offers clear guidelines and examples for consistent implementation and team collaboration. Comprehensive documentation often includes setup guides, usage examples, and troubleshooting FAQs.
10 Best Design System Examples
The following system design examples exemplify innovation, scalability, and user-centric design in 2025. Each stands out for its unique approach to solving modern design challenges while setting benchmarks for consistency, accessibility, and collaboration.
- Google Material Design System: Best for modern cross-platform web design
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Best for intuitive, aesthetically pleasing interfaces
- IBM Carbon Design System: Best for accessible, scalable enterprise websites
- Microsoft Fluent: Best for modern, engaging UI across platforms
- Atlassian Design System: Best for consistent user experience across product suites
- Adobe Spectrum: Best for accessible, customizable web interfaces
- Mailchimp Pattern Library: Best for user-friendly marketing websites
- Audi Design System: Best for unified brand experience across digital and physical
- Uber Base Design System: Best for scaling websites across platforms and devices
- Shopify Polaris: Best for intuitive e-commerce websites
1. Google Material Design System: Best for Modern, User-Friendly Cross-Platform Web Design
Originally released in 2014, Google's Material Design has become one of the most widely recognized and influential design systems. It's known for its distinctive visual style inspired by the physical world and principles of print design. You can find it implemented in many Google products, such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Android OS, as well as third-party apps.
Material Design's comprehensive guidelines and reusable components make it a versatile system for building a wide range of applications. Its open-source nature has also fostered a large and active community, contributing to its ongoing development and evolution.
Key Features
- Open-Source Code: Multi-platform code that enables designers and developers to build beautiful, scalable products faster.
- Tutorials, Case Studies, and News: Relevant resources about Material Design, such as updates, deep dives, and best practices.
- Adaptive Layouts: Patterns and guidelines for creating responsive designs that adapt seamlessly across various screen sizes.
- Figma Design Kit: Ready-made components and layouts provided in the Material 3 (M3) design kit for Figma.
Whether building enterprise-level web tools like Google Workspace or designing the best interactive web designs for eCommerce or streaming, Material Design’s comprehensive framework makes it one of the most powerful and innovative website design system examples.
2. Apple Human Interface Guidelines: Best for Intuitive, Aesthetically Pleasing Interfaces on the Web
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) are highly regarded for their attention to detail and emphasis on creating seamless, intuitive user experiences. While HIG is primarily app-focused, its principles and tools also apply to web design — particularly for web apps or sites designed to complement Apple products and services.
Designing for Safari on macOS or iOS, for example, requires adhering to accessibility and performance standards that align with HIG. The guidelines stress principles like clarity, consistency, and direct manipulation, which are just as vital for creating intuitive web interfaces as they are for apps.
Many Apple-integrated web apps, like iCloud.com, demonstrate how to bring HIG principles to life in a browser environment, blending functionality with a distinctly Apple-inspired aesthetic.
Key Features
- Platform-Specific Guidance: Offers tailored recommendations for designing web experiences optimized for Safari on macOS and iOS.
- Accessibility First: Includes comprehensive best practices for dynamic type, voice control, alternative input methods, etc. to make web interfaces accessible to everyone.
- Human-Centered Focus: Encourages web designers to prioritize user clarity, control, and consistency in creating seamless and enjoyable browsing experiences.
- SF Symbols: Over 4,000 vector-based icons designed for scalable, seamless integration into Apple-inspired web designs.
- Refined, Minimalist Aesthetic: A hallmark of Apple design, HIG emphasizes clean, minimalist visuals with subtle animations and translucent effects, creating a sophisticated and modern web experience.
The Apple HIG is an excellent resource for designers building platforms that mirror Apple’s intuitive, user-first philosophy — whether in websites or apps.
3. IBM Carbon Design System: Best for Accessible, Scalable Enterprise Websites
The IBM Carbon Design System is a robust, open-source design system tailored for enterprise-grade websites and applications. Known for its scalability, accessibility, and flexibility, Carbon is built to meet the demands of large-scale projects while maintaining a high standard of usability and consistency.
Originally developed for IBM’s internal use, Carbon has grown into a widely adopted design system, offering pre-built components, comprehensive guidelines, and framework-specific implementations. Its emphasis on accessibility ensures that web experiences are inclusive and compliant with industry standards, making it particularly suited for organizations prioritizing usability for diverse audiences.
Key Features
- Open-Source Code: Built on open-source foundations, fostering flexibility, community collaboration, and rapid iteration to meet specific enterprise needs.
- Design Kits and Resources: Includes kits for tools like Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD, allowing designers to quickly prototype and build interfaces that align with Carbon’s design language.
- Framework-Specific Implementations: Offers ready-to-use components for popular front-end frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, and Web Components, ensuring consistency across different technologies.
- Vibrant Community: A large, active community of contributors shares support, resources, and best practices, driving the system's ongoing development and accessibility.
In a nutshell, IBM Carbon Design System empowers designers and developers to create cohesive, inclusive digital experiences. Whether you’re developing a corporate dashboard, a public-facing enterprise site, or similar, Carbon’s robust tools and vibrant community make it one of the best design systems for web design in 2025.
4. Microsoft Fluent: Best for Modern, Engaging UI Across Platforms
The Microsoft Fluent Design System is a versatile and robust design framework created to deliver intuitive, engaging, and cohesive user experiences across multiple platforms. With a strong emphasis on user experience, Fluent makes navigation and interactions feel natural and efficient, contributing to a sense of familiarity and ease.
Fluent is particularly well-suited for organizations developing applications and services across platforms like Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and the web. Fluent’s design philosophy is visible across Microsoft’s flagship products like Microsoft Teams, Office 365, and Windows 11, showcasing its ability to deliver modern and engaging user interfaces.
Key Features
- Focus on User Experience: Emphasizes natural and intuitive interactions, creating efficient and user-friendly interfaces that enhance navigation and usability.
- Coherent Cross-Platform Experiences: Ensures a unified design language across diverse platforms, including web, desktop, and mobile, fostering familiarity and consistency for users.
- Adaptive and Inclusive: Supports accessibility needs with features like high contrast modes, keyboard navigation, and screen readers, while adapting to various screen sizes and input methods.
- Open-Source Tools and Resources: Offers tools like React components, web components, and design kits for Figma, enabling seamless implementation for designers and developers.
With its strong emphasis on user experience, cross-platform consistency, and inclusivity, Fluent is ideal for web designers and developers working within enterprise ecosystems or targeting diverse audiences. Whether designing a productivity tool, a collaborative app like Microsoft Teams, or an engaging web experience, Fluent’s comprehensive framework ensures scalable and accessible design system solutions.
5. Atlassian Design System: Best for Consistent User Experience Across Product Suites
The Atlassian Design System (ADS) is designed to deliver a consistent, user-friendly experience across Atlassian’s suite of productivity tools, including Jira, Confluence, and Trello. By focusing on consistency, ADS ensures that users feel comfortable navigating between products.
At the heart of ADS is its use of design tokens, a centralized system for managing foundational styling elements such as color palettes, typography, and spacing. With its strong emphasis on consistency and usability, ADS is a reliable choice for enterprise-level product ecosystems.
Key Features
- Focus on Consistency: Built to provide a seamless, unified experience across Atlassian tools, ensuring users feel at home when transitioning between products like Jira and Trello.
- Design Tokens: Centralized tokens define core styling aspects such as colors, typography, and spacing, making it easier to implement and maintain consistent visuals across platforms.
- Content Guidelines: Offers recommendations for voice, tone, and terminology, ensuring clear, concise, and user-friendly communication within interfaces.
- Open-Source Contributions: Encourages community feedback and contributions, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement of the design system.
The Atlassian Design System is tailored for enterprise teams seeking consistency across product suites. Its design tokens, content guidelines, and collaborative open-source approach make it ideal for creating cohesive user experiences within complex ecosystems. Overall, ADS effectively provides the structure and resources necessary for scalable and user-friendly solutions.
6. Adobe Spectrum: Best for Accessible, Customizable Web Interfaces
Developed to support Adobe’s suite of products, Adobe Spectrum Design System combines a strong focus on accessibility with a flexible theming system and a robust component library, making it an excellent choice for web designers and developers seeking consistency and adaptability.
Key Features
- Accessibility First: Adheres to WCAG standards with comprehensive accessibility features, including keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and robust color contrast controls.
- Customizable and Themeable: Offers a flexible theming system to adjust colors, typography, and spacing, ensuring alignment with brand or product requirements.
- Comprehensive Component Library: Includes a wide range of reusable UI components like buttons, dropdowns, date pickers, and modals, designed to streamline development while maintaining consistency.
- Extensive Documentation and Resources: Provides detailed guidelines, component specifications, usage examples, and UI kits to help teams quickly adopt and implement Spectrum.
- React-Based Implementation: Features React Spectrum, offering pre-built components and hooks that accelerate development and ensure high-performance, accessible web interfaces.
Whether you’re building enterprise tools or customer-facing interfaces, Spectrum provides the resources and flexibility needed to create polished, user-friendly designs. Its focus on WCAG compliance, flexible theming, and comprehensive React-based components make it a standout choice.
7. Mailchimp Pattern Library: Best for User-Friendly Marketing Websites
The Mailchimp Pattern Library is a user-friendly design system that provides clear, effective communication through well-crafted patterns and components. Usability is at the core of this design system, helping users navigate essential marketing tasks such as creating subscriber tables or visuals of performance metrics. From typography and imagery to layouts, it ensures marketing content remains visually engaging and easy to consume.
Key Features
- Content-Focused: Prioritizes clear and effective communication, offering patterns and guidelines for typography, imagery, and layout tailored to marketing tasks.
- Focus on Usability: Components are designed to streamline workflows for marketing activities, such as campaign creation and analytics, ensuring a seamless user experience.
- Emphasis on Accessibility: Implements best practices for accessibility, including ARIA attributes, keyboard navigation, and proper color contrast, to create inclusive designs.
- Living Design System: Continuously evolves with updates and expansions based on user feedback and the latest design trends.
The Mailchimp Pattern Library excels at crafting user-friendly marketing websites that prioritize content, usability, and accessibility. Mailchimp’s Pattern Library offers the resources to build engaging and user-centered web experiences.
8. Audi Design System: Best for Unified Brand Experience Across Digital and Physical
The Audi Design System is crafted to deliver a unified, premium brand experience across all touchpoints — digital, physical, and automotive. By establishing a holistic brand language, Audi ensures that its identity remains consistent and recognizable, whether a user interacts with its website, mobile app, vehicle interface, or showroom displays.
Key Features
- Holistic Brand Language: Extends beyond digital, unifying Audi’s identity across websites, apps, vehicle interfaces, and physical spaces like showrooms.
- Digital-First Approach: Focuses on creating cohesive websites, apps, and other digital interfaces that reflect Audi’s sleek and premium branding.
- 3D and Motion Design: Includes guidelines for animations, transitions, and interactive elements, enhancing user engagement with dynamic visuals.
- Scalability and Flexibility: Adapts seamlessly to different platforms, from mobile screens to large-scale vehicle displays and showroom installations.
Audi's design system is a masterclass in extending a brand's visual language across diverse environments. By meticulously connecting digital and physical experiences, it provides designers with a robust framework for crafting a cohesive and premium brand identity, regardless of touchpoint.
9. Uber Base Design System: Best for Scaling Websites Across Platforms and Devices
The Uber Base Design System is designed to deliver a single product seamlessly and consistently across Uber’s extensive global platform. By emphasizing cross-platform compatibility, Base ensures that Uber’s services look and feel cohesive, whether accessed via iOS, Android, or the web. This adaptability supports Uber’s mission to provide a reliable and familiar interface to users around the world.
Key Features
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Seamlessly adapts to iOS, Android, and web platforms, providing a consistent user experience across devices like phones, tablets, and desktops
- Accessibility: Ensures inclusivity with WCAG-compliant components, accommodating users with disabilities through features like keyboard navigation and proper contrast.
- Global Reach: Supports internationalization and localization, with guidelines for adapting to languages, currencies, and culturally sensitive content, including emoji usage.
- Performance-Optimized: Given the scale of Uber's operations, Base components are built for speed and efficiency, delivering smooth performance on low-bandwidth connections or older devices
The Uber Base Design System excels at crafting consistent and inclusive global experiences, making it an excellent choice for companies operating across diverse regions and platforms. Its emphasis on accessibility, performance, and localization reflects Uber’s commitment to creating intuitive and reliable interfaces that resonate with a worldwide audience.
10. Shopify Polaris: Best for Intuitive eCommerce Websites
The Shopify Polaris Design System is purpose-built for creating intuitive, efficient, and stylish eCommerce websites. Designed with the needs of online merchants in mind, Polaris simplifies shop management through components and patterns that streamline workflows and improve the merchant experience.
Polaris also excels in internationalization, offering guidelines for designing and building globally adaptable products. This ensures merchants can easily cater to international audiences, improving accessibility and usability across regions.
Key Features
- Focus on Merchant Needs: Tailored for online merchants, providing workflows and admin experiences that enhance shop management and streamline operations.
- Internationalization: Offers guidelines for building globally adaptable products, supporting diverse audiences and expanding commerce reach worldwide.
- Pro-Design Language: Balances efficiency, intuition, and style, delivering dynamic, data-rich views and action-driven interfaces that support decision-making.
- Comprehensive Business Icons: Features over 400 icons designed for eCommerce businesses and entrepreneurs, enriching the platform's visual language.
Shopify Polaris goes beyond a typical design system by deeply understanding the eCommerce landscape. It's a powerful toolkit that not only streamlines the creation of intuitive online stores but also considers the global nature of today's businesses — allowing Polaris to lead as a powerful design system for modern eCommerce today.
Why Use a Design System?
Design systems are essential in today's digital landscape. In fact, 65% of companies reported using design systems in 2020 and this number is expected to rise. Studies have also shown that design systems can reduce development time by up to 37%.
But why are they so impactful? Let's dive into the benefits:
- Consistency: A design system acts as a single source of truth, ensuring a consistent look and feel across all platforms and touchpoints. This strengthens brand identity and improves user recognition by providing a familiar and predictable experience.
- Efficiency: Design systems streamline the design process by providing reusable components and patterns. This saves time and resources, allowing teams to focus on innovation and problem-solving instead of reinventing the wheel.
- Scalability: With a design system in place, scaling products and features becomes significantly more efficient. Consistency is maintained even as the product or company grows, preventing design fragmentation and ensuring a unified user experience.
- Improved Collaboration: Design systems foster better communication and collaboration between designers, developers, and stakeholders. They provide a shared language and understanding, facilitating smoother workflows and reducing misunderstandings.
- Enhanced Brand Identity: By ensuring a consistent visual language and user experience, design systems reinforce brand identity across all platforms. This creates a strong brand presence and fosters user trust.
- Reduced Maintenance: Design systems can reduce long-term maintenance efforts by providing a centralized source of truth for design and code. This minimizes inconsistencies, redundancies, and the need for constant updates across various platforms.
Everyone involved in creating digital products benefits from design systems — from designers and developers to product managers and stakeholders. Designers gain more time for creative problem-solving, developers enjoy clear guidelines and pre-built assets, and product managers can deliver consistent and efficient projects.
Additionally, startups, small businesses, freelancers, and large organizations alike can leverage design systems to streamline their workflow, enhance their brand, and ultimately, create better user experiences.
When Do You Need a Design System?
A design system can solve many challenges and set your project up for success. Here are the key moments to know when it’s time to adopt or create one your own:
- Starting a New Project
A design system serves as your northern star when designing a website, providing a structured foundation and offering predefined components and guidelines to ensure consistency from day one. This not only speeds up the design process but also makes it easier to scale as your project grows. - Scaling a Product
As your product expands, maintaining a cohesive user experience across features, platforms, or teams becomes increasingly challenging. A design system creates a shared resource, allowing all contributors to align on design standards, reducing errors, and improving efficiency. - Facing Inconsistencies
When inconsistencies creep into your product — like mismatched button styles, color variations, or divergent user flows — a design system can restore order. By standardizing elements and patterns, it ensures a seamless and unified experience across all touchpoints. - Improving Brand Identity
A design system solidifies your brand’s visual language and tone, making it easy to maintain a consistent look and feel across your website, app, and other digital platforms. This strengthens brand recognition and builds trust with users. - Rebranding or Redesign
Redesigns and rebrands can be complex, but a design system simplifies the process. It acts as a blueprint, guiding every design decision and ensuring that the new identity is applied consistently across every element of your product. - Improving Accessibility
Accessibility often requires detailed attention to color contrast, typography, and interaction patterns. A design system embeds accessibility into its core, ensuring that every component adheres to standards like WCAG, so your product is inclusive for all users, including those with disabilities.
Best Design System Examples: The Bottom Line
Whether you're a well-established business or a startup, a well-defined design system is no longer optional – it's a necessity. It's the key to achieving consistency, scalability, and exceptional user experiences across all digital touchpoints.
By providing a centralized source of truth for design and code, a design system empowers teams to work more efficiently, collaborate seamlessly, and maintain a unified brand identity.
Ultimately, the best design system for your project depends on your unique requirements. Studying existing systems offers valuable insights, while creating your own allows for maximum customization. No matter the approach, embracing the principles of design systems will undoubtedly lead to better digital products and happier users.
Best Design System Examples FAQs
How do I choose the right design system for my company?
Choosing the right design system depends on your specific needs and priorities. Consider factors like your company's size, industry, target audience, and existing design language. Evaluate whether an open-source or commercial system better suits your budget and customization needs.
Then, assess the system's component library, documentation, and community support to ensure it aligns with your team's workflow and technical expertise. Also, consider prioritizing systems that emphasize accessibility, scalability, and cross-platform compatibility to future-proof your design and development efforts.
What are the key features to look for in a design system?
A robust design system should include a comprehensive component library, clear style guide, and detailed documentation. Look for systems with design tokens for easy customization, code frameworks for seamless implementation, and active community support for ongoing updates and assistance.
Are design systems worth the investment?
Yes, design systems are a worthwhile investment. They increase efficiency by streamlining workflows and reducing redundancies, ultimately saving time and resources. Design systems enhance consistency, strengthen brand identity, and improve user experience, leading to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. They also promote scalability, making it easier to adapt and expand your product offerings while maintaining a unified design language.
