Design systems promise consistency, efficiency, and collaboration — but working with them isn’t always straightforward. Whether you’re adopting a design system for the first time or helping maintain one, there are some common traps teams fall into.
This article walks through the most frequent pitfalls I’ve seen (and made myself), and offers simple, practical ways to avoid them.
1. Not Knowing the System Well Enough
The Pitfall:
Designers re-create components from scratch. Developers bypass tokens. Content authors ignore editorial guidance. Everyone “sort of” uses the system, but not really — and inconsistently.
Why It Happens:
People often use a design system before they truly understand it. It feels faster to guess than to stop and check the documentation.
How to Avoid It:
- Onboard every team member. A quick walkthrough of the design system (what’s in it, where to find it, how it fits your work) should be part of every onboarding process.
- Bookmark key references. Link the live documentation, GitHub repo, Figma library, and content style guide somewhere obvious.
- Use the design system daily. Don’t treat it like a library on the shelf — it should be the default for design, development, and publishing.
2. Overriding Core Styles
The Pitfall:
You use the official button… but tweak the font size. Then override the colour. Then remove the hover effect. Suddenly, it’s no longer the design system’s button.
Why It Happens:
Teams want flexibility. It feels easier to modify a component than request a new variation through governance.
How to Avoid It:
- Respect the system’s contract. Components are designed to work as a whole. When you override them, you introduce visual debt and unpredictability.
- Use the extension model. Many design systems (especially token-based ones) offer safe ways to extend patterns.
- If it doesn’t work, raise it. Most systems welcome feedback and requests for improvement. Use governance pathways instead of hacking your own fixes.
3. Designing Outside the System
The Pitfall:
Designers build beautiful mockups in Figma, but don’t use design system components. The devs now have to guess, approximate, or re-build everything manually.
Why It Happens:
Sometimes the Figma file isn’t up to date. Sometimes the designer hasn’t been trained on the system. Sometimes the component just doesn’t exist.
How to Avoid It:
- Work from the system’s Figma library. If it’s missing something, flag it — don’t improvise.
- Involve devs early. Review designs together to catch misalignments before they turn into implementation headaches.
- Treat design like a shared language. The design system should align designers and developers — not sit between them.
4. Ignoring Content Patterns
The Pitfall:
You follow the component structure, but ignore the content. Headings are inconsistent. Links don’t make sense. Tone of voice is all over the place.
Why It Happens:
Design systems are often seen as visual tools. Content authors either aren’t involved, or aren’t aware of the editorial guidelines that sit alongside components.
How to Avoid It:
- Include content people in your process. They bring clarity, structure, and usability to your interfaces.
- Follow the content style guide. Most mature systems include one — covering everything from headings to accessibility and link writing.
- Check your copy in context. The words are part of the design — not separate from it.
5. Lack of Governance
The Pitfall:
Anyone can edit the system. Changes get pushed without review. There’s no clear ownership, no backlog process, and no feedback loop.
Why It Happens:
Early design systems are often treated like a side project. Without time, structure, or leadership, they grow wild — not strong.
How to Avoid It:
- Define clear ownership. Who maintains the system? Who approves changes? Who manages the roadmap?
- Use contribution workflows. Code reviews, documentation standards, and versioning help keep quality high.
- Set up a governance model. Even a lightweight one helps teams work together without stepping on each other’s toes.
6. Forgetting Accessibility
The Pitfall:
You build beautiful, polished components — but they fail accessibility checks. Screen readers can’t navigate them. Colour contrast is poor. Keyboard focus is broken.
Why It Happens:
Accessibility is often treated as an afterthought. Design systems get built fast, and fixes come late (if at all).
How to Avoid It:
- Bake in accessibility from the start. Every token, component, and guideline should follow WCAG standards.
- Test early and often. Use tools like axe, Lighthouse, or VoiceOver during development.
- Write accessibility guidance. Don’t just code accessibly — explain how and why, so others can follow.
7. No Real-World Testing
The Pitfall:
Your design system looks great in isolation. But once real content and real users show up, things break. Headings wrap badly. Long labels overflow. Error messages misalign.
Why It Happens:
Systems are often built with placeholder content. Without realistic use cases, edge cases go unnoticed.
How to Avoid It:
- Test with real content. Run your components with actual labels, messages, and flows — not just lorem ipsum.
- Get feedback from users. See how the design system performs in real-world projects.
- Document edge cases. If something doesn’t work well with long names or dynamic data, write it down and offer guidance.
8. Overengineering
The Pitfall:
You spend months building a perfect, atomic design system with full CI/CD, token pipelines, Storybook docs, and usage analytics — but no one uses it.
Why It Happens:
Teams fall in love with the tooling. The system becomes the product, rather than a means to an end.
How to Avoid It:
- Build for adoption, not perfection. Focus on solving real user problems first — polish later.
- Start small, scale gradually. Launch a minimum viable system and grow it based on demand.
- Measure value, not features. Ask how much time, effort, or confusion your system saves — not how fancy your setup is.
9. Working in Silos
The Pitfall:
Designers work in Figma. Developers work in code. Content teams work in Word. The design system sits somewhere in the middle, disconnected from everyone.
Why It Happens:
Without a shared process or platform, teams default to familiar tools. The design system becomes just “another thing” instead of the glue.
How to Avoid It:
- Treat the design system as common ground. Make it the shared source of truth that connects teams.
- Work across disciplines. Encourage design–dev–content collaboration, not handoffs.
- Use feedback loops. Keep communication flowing — from usage to improvement.
Design systems work best when everyone works together. They’re not just a set of components — they’re a shared way of thinking and building.
Avoiding these common pitfalls isn’t about being perfect. It’s about staying curious, collaborative, and committed to improving the system — together.