What is Shopify Design System and Advantages of it
Shopify is a leading commerce platform designed for businesses of all sizes. Whether you sell online, on social media, in store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered. Shopify has a simple mission - to make commerce better for everyone. Shopify recently introduced Polaris, a new Shopify design system that helps Shopify designers and partners to create a consistent user experience for merchants. The shopify polaris design system helps use best practices from Shopify's own design team when developing new interfaces and apps.
- Part 1: What is Shopify Design System and Advantages of it
- Part 2: How to Use Shopify Design System
- Part 3: The Best Tool for Prototyping
What is Shopify Design System and Advantages of it
The Shopify Polaris design system is a set of comprehensive guidelines and principles that designers can use while building apps and channels for Shopify. It offers a range of resources and building elements like patterns and is available to all Shopify partners. Instead of focusing on creating already-existing elements and mimicking design patterns, Shopify designers can now focus on what really matters: providing solutions that blend in with Shopify seamlessly. This gives better user experience and keeps everything uniform and consistent.
That's not all, Shopify Design System comes with a whole set of advantages –
- Shallow learning curve - The Polaris shopify design system comprises of the complete set of building blocks requisite to create apps that will feel familiar to merchants. The design system does not require a learning curve. Partners can download a style guide, a library of components and patterns, and a UI kit they can use which eases a lot of the complexity.
- Saves time – Even though initially it feels constrained to work within a fixed design framework, it saves a lot of time and effort.
- Clear direction - Shopify Polaris provides simple and detailed design guidelines on how you should use colour and even how you write the contents. Clear directions and guidelines help your team to have a consistent way to design and apply the standard. When a component is updated, you want to apply to all your previous design.
- Open-Source Project – Polaris is one of Shopify's open-source projects. This certainly gives designers the confidence that when this is applied to a product, it will also work with other e-commerce platforms. Therefore, the designs are not limited to Shopify.
- Frequent updates and maintenance – These ensure that you are not left behind and have the latest and greatest
- Maintain your brand identity – With Polaris shopify design system, you cannot control all the design elements. However, you can boost your brand identity by adding a logo to the navigation bar and designing your own illustrations.
Overall, the shopify design system fastens and improves the quality of frontend development.
How to Use Shopify Design System
Before you begin using the Polaris Sopify design system, you must be aware of the components of the design system –
- Guides – Polaris guides comprise of guidelines and best practices on creating elements for Shopify admin and apps, incorporating accessibility and internationalisation options. The aim is to provide merchants with a fluid experience when switching between core Shopify and app functions. Because for usability they should look and feel the same.
- Content - Guidelines and resources on using content to improve user experience. From writing product descriptions and using the right tone and voice, all the way to naming products and adding alternative text, this section covers best practices on utilising language as a powerful UX element. Here, designers can learn all about preferred date formats, the proper vocabulary for actions, and developing a strategic plan for language.
- Design – The design system offers resources and guidelines on using colours, typography and illustrations, as well as best practices on sounds and icons. This section also covers the use of spacing, data visualisation, and interaction states.
- Components – Polaris includes a collection of readily available interface elements, including React and CSS components, that Shopify Designers can use to provide a consistent experience across channels and apps.
- Patterns – The design system details the best practices for arranging the page layout: from screen structure to page components, standard layouts and navigation. This section also covers best practices for error messages including types of messages, what colours to use, and the best way to display various error message types.
Shopify Experts who want to design with Shopify Polaris will need to follow the below steps
- Download the Sketch UI kit and React components. These can be accessed from the main Polaris landing page. To get them: Scroll to "Resources" at the bottom of the page > click "View more resources" to get access to the downloads section.
- You can also find links to helpful documentation, developer forums, and blogs. Plus, links to third-party tools that can further enhance what you are building.
The Best Tool for Prototyping
Before you start using the Shopify design system, it is recommended to prototype your design. The best tool for prototyping is hands down Wondershare Mockitt. This modern interface design and prototyping tool welcomes beginners with open arms. With Mockitt, you can mimic the final Shopify product with numerous interactive gestures and transitions to create life-like prototypes with no coding knowledge.
Mockitt has an extremely intuitive and simple interface. The tool is easy to use and offers the capability to simply drag and drop the widgets, and a beginner can finish a prototype rapidly in 10 minutes. It comes with a great collection of libraries full of built-in UI assets and templates.
Most designers work as part of a team and with team members becoming more geographically dispersed, a real time prototype builder where multiple designers can make changes simultaneously is imperative. By using Mockitt, team members can view and co-edit projects, communicate in real-time, and seamlessly engage in remote work. This avoids delays and eliminates the wait times for manual syncing. Multiple users can create versions and collaborate efficiently. Version information can be appended to find it faster. Designers can compare versions, track changes, and see the iterations flow naturally.
When it comes to choosing a cost-effective interface design tool, Mockitt should be your obvious choice. The pricing options offered by Mockitt are extremely reasonable and pocket friendly. You can get started at absolutely no cost for your first 3 projects. You can use the tool by simply firing up any popular browser. This eliminates all installation hassle.
Indeed, Mockitt speeds up your design process and compliments the Shopify design system very well. Go ahead and give Mockitt a shot now.
