If you’ve been around or worked in application, web, or software development you may have heard of or used a design system. You may have even worked on one before. If not, don’t worry! I will cover what it is and why it is useful in application development today.

From the lands of Figma to the oceans of Sketch and everything in between (looking at you InVIsion Studio), it can be hard to decide which tool to use for the job at hand with such a wide selection of great tools and not-so-great tools available. With 5+ years of experience as an application developer, I’ve used most of the most popular ones (which I go into detail about below) to perform various tasks including application design, prototyping, logo creation, wireframing, and so on. But which one comes out on top?

Project Managers wear many hats, but ‘communication middleman’ shouldn’t be one of them. Over time, it has become increasingly clear that having the product manager be the sole point of contact with a client, the primary bridge between the development and requirements teams is an inefficient way to run an agile product development team.

From hard-earned experience, I can say that being a part of a team that doesn’t include design during the agile/software development life cycle has not only slowed development down but has at times taken some of the joy out of application development. Trying to understand what to build without so much as a low-fidelity mock-up is like trying to get to an unknown destination without a map to guide you there. It just adds extra friction that can and should be avoided.