Integrating Design Tokens

In the modern landscape of UI frameworks, design tokens play a pivotal role in maintaining consistency and scalability in design systems. This lesson focuses on the integration of design tokens into UI frameworks.

Design tokens are a set of variables that store design decisions such as colors, spacing, typography, and other UI attributes. They enable designers and developers to maintain a shared design language.

• Consistency across platforms and devices.
• Scalability in design systems.
• Easy updates and maintenance of design attributes.
• Facilitates collaboration between designers and developers.

Step-by-Step Integration

1. Define your design tokens in a structured format (e.g., JSON).
2. Use a build tool to compile your design tokens into usable CSS variables or styles.
3. Integrate the generated styles into your UI framework (e.g., React, Vue, Angular).
4. Utilize the design tokens throughout your components for styling.

Sample JSON for Design Tokens

{
  "color": {
    "primary": "#007bff",
    "secondary": "#6c757d"
  },
  "font": {
    "baseSize": "16px",
    "headingSize": "24px"
  }
}

Example Usage in CSS

:root {
    --color-primary: #007bff;
    --color-secondary: #6c757d;
    --font-base-size: 16px;
}

.button {
    background-color: var(--color-primary);
    font-size: var(--font-base-size);
}

• Keep tokens organized and consistent.
• Document your design tokens for easy reference.
• Use descriptive naming conventions for tokens.
• Regularly update tokens to reflect design changes.