Design System - Typography
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INTERNET BRANDS - TYPE SYSTEM
The designs for the Internet Brands' website builder tool were absent of consistent font styles so I built a type system to give a shared foundation.
The Challenge
The text in our design files were unlinked to styles and there were inconsistencies between the text styling in design and the text styling in code.
Our Approach
I audited the text styles in designs and code and created more distinct variations. I performed competitive analysis of other typography systems and created one that was specific to our needs.
Research
Companies had different ways of approaching type in their design systems so I dug into the similarities and differences.
Uber Type System
One of the companies whose type system I reviewed was Uber. The Uber type system had a good model for size intervals. They also utilized folders for the styles in Figma.
Uber Type System
Airtable Type System
I also took a look at the Airtable Type system. One of my takeaways was the inclusion of All Caps heading sizes.
Airtable Type System
Building a System
I tested different type systems out to see if they could be utilized in our designs and landed on one that still limited the choices but remained flexible.
Organizing Styles
Initially, I thought about fitting all the different styles into six headings, but after doing an audit of our site, there were a lot more than six heading styles being used. Some were bold, some were light, some were all caps. I decided to split them by size and created folders for them containing the different weights.
I was able to batch create these styles through a plugin called 'Styler'. After creating sizes for the default 'Regular' weight, I duplicated the frame to create 'Light', 'Semibold', and 'Bold' versions. I changed the weights and batch-renamed the text to reflect the weights.
Screenshot of Regular, Light, Semibold, Bold Weights
Utilizing the plugin, I created subfolders with the different weights.
Color variants organized in folders in Figma
Typography frame and text styles in the sidebar
Conclusion
The type system gave a shared vocabulary and improved communication among designers and developers.
Final Product
One example of how we used text styles for consistent designs could be found in our modals. We utilized
styles with locked in font sizes and weights to form a consistent look across the different modals.
Modals that we built using linked Text Styles
Using the type system helped us put together designs more quickly and it made the text in our designs clearer and more unified.