9 Design System Metrics That Matter

In this article, we’re going to explore the key metrics that really matter for design systems. We’ll discuss why they’re important and, more importantly, when you should be focusing on each one during the different stages of your system's life cycle. So, let’s dive in and discover how to make sure your design system is not only robust but also effective.

Why metrics matter for design systems

Building a design system takes time and effort, so it’s understandable that some teams are just focused on getting it up and running. But, tracking the right metrics is crucial to the continued success of your design system. Think of it this way: If you don't measure anything, how do you know what's working and what's not?

By tracking metrics, you can:

• Track progress: See how far you’ve come and identify areas where you need to improve.
• Identify problems: Spot bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or components that are not being used, so you can address them before they become larger issues.
• Demonstrate ROI: Show stakeholders the value your design system is bringing to the organization by quantifying its positive impact.
• Prioritize improvements: Make informed decisions about where to allocate resources and what features or components to focus on next.
• Gain stakeholder buy-in: When you have data to back up your decisions, you can more easily get the resources and support you need to continue developing your system.

So, with the importance of metrics in mind, let’s jump into the metrics you need to know.

Key design system metrics

Alright, let’s dive into the core metrics you should know about when building your design system. This list should help get you started:

Adoption rate

Adoption rate is all about measuring how many designers and developers are actively using your design system. It’s the most basic question – are people actually using what you’ve built? If nobody is using your design system, then, well, it doesn’t really matter how many components you have. A low adoption rate can be a red flag for a lack of awareness, bad documentation, or just components that don't actually meet your team's needs.

How to measure: You can track this by looking at design file usage (Figma analytics is your friend here), digging into your code repository, sending out surveys, or even just talking to your team directly. Segment's Evergreen team have a detailed guide of how they measured adoption, including an open-sourced tool to build your own dashboard for it.

When to track: This metric is a must right when you launch your design system, and it really needs to be emphasized in the early stages.

Component reuse

Component reuse looks at how often the core components of your design system are being used across different projects. Are people actually leveraging the components you made? High component reuse is a sign of efficiency, it helps promote consistency, and reduces the amount of redundant work. It's a good sign that your system is making things easier for your team.

How to measure: You can check out your design tool's analytics (again, Figma is great for this), look at your code repository, and see the patterns of component use.

Productboard's team showcased how they track component usage from their code. By extracting your code from repositories you can perform a static analysis to determine which components were used in the final product.

For design components, Pinterest’s Gestalt team have a great guide showcasing how they used Figma's analytics and comparing it to their actual UI in production to figure out component usage.

When to track: This metric becomes a priority in the mid-stages of your design system. It’ll show you how efficient your system is.

User Satisfaction

User satisfaction is all about measuring how happy the people who use your system are with it. It is a crucial metric to track how your system is performing with your users. This helps you uncover any usability issues you may have missed, helps guide future development, and also makes sure your system is actually improving the workflow for your teams.

How to measure: You can conduct regular surveys, user interviews, and just get feedback directly from your design and development teams. Nathan Curtis, one of the leading design system experts, explains the importance of user reported metrics and how to score them better in his article.

When to track: While it’s essential in the early stages, user satisfaction should be tracked throughout the design system's lifecycle to make sure it continues to meet the needs of your users.

Time savings

Time savings is all about measuring the time your teams are saving when using the design system versus not using it. This will directly show how efficient your design system is at reducing the time it takes to complete tasks.

How to measure: You can track the time it takes to complete a task with and without the design system. Similar to user satisfaction, this will likely be mostly self reported by teams, creating a better idea of the impact the design system has on the development process as a whole. Check out how the team at REA managed to save 300k hours with their design system and track it.

When to track: This becomes most relevant in the mid-stages, as you’re focusing on efficiency and how well your teams are using the design system to work faster.

Design consistency

Design consistency is about how visually consistent your product is across all of its different parts. A consistent design leads to better user experiences and makes your brand much more recognizable, which is crucial for any product. It also shows that your design system is functioning as your single source of truth.

How to measure: You can measure this by doing visual audits of your products or using automated tools to check consistency. You can even ask your users about their experiences and see if your products feel consistent with them. Jerome Benoit from Doctolib shared how he and his team approached tracking design consistency in his medium article.

When to track: This is particularly important in the mature stages of a design system, when you've already got it implemented in your products.

Accessibility

Accessibility is all about how usable your design system is for everyone, including people with disabilities. An accessible design system is crucial for making sure your product can be used by everyone and also helps you meet compliance standards, which is super important.

How to measure: You can measure this by conducting accessibility audits and user testing with people who use assistive technologies. Check out our comprehensive accessibility guide written by ‍Cintia Romero, Sr. Product Designer at Gestalt.

When to track: This is important at all stages of your design system but becomes a central focus in the mature stages.

Maintenance costs

Maintenance costs track how much it actually costs to maintain your design system and keep it up to date. A healthy design system is one that has reasonable maintenance costs and allows you to keep dedicating resources towards it sustainably. This also informs your ROI calculation in the long run.

How to measure: You can track the time and resources spent on component updates, documentation, and bug fixes by the dedicated design system practitioners. The team at Mews shared how they managed to cut maintenance costs with Supernova.

When to track: You’ll want to keep a close eye on this in the mid-stages, as you look to optimize efficiency.

Documentation usage

Documentation usage focuses on how your design system’s documentation is being accessed. A robust documentation site serves as the single source of truth for your design system and helps drive adoption and consistency. Similar to user satisfaction, this measure doesn't track the final adoption and implementation of your design system, but rather an indicator for how effectively it is meeting your team’s needs. Knowing how often users access specific pages and how long they're staying on those pages could help you optimize the documentation site as a tool.

How to measure: You can use Google Analytics (GA) to track metrics such as site traffic, most-visited pages, time spent on pages, and event tracking for specific interactions. Tools like Hotjar can complement GA by providing heatmaps and session recordings to identify navigation patterns. Check out the "Design System Documentation is a Moving Target” webinar for insight from experts in the field on how they track documentation success.

When to track: This metric should be monitored continuously but is especially critical in the early stages to ensure the documentation effectively supports adoption.

ROI (Return on Investment)

ROI is all about measuring the overall value that your design system brings to your product and your organization as a whole. It demonstrates the monetary value of your system and proves to stakeholders that it's a revenue driver and worth the investment. Since it has a broader definition, the calculation itself could include every other metric already mentioned in this article. The more you track, the better you can narrow down exactly how much time and money your design system is saving you or earning for the business, and this ROI can then serve as the foundation for a business case to senior executives.

How to measure: You can measure ROI by calculating the time saved in design and development, looking at the reduction in design and technical debt, and tracking improvements in consistency. This can involve all the costs and gain metrics we've discussed. To get a better sense of what exactly, Smashing Magazine has a comprehensive guide on how to calculate ROI of your design system. Dedicated tools like Supernova also have their own ROI calculator to help you get a sense of your added savings.

When to track: This becomes a key metric in the mature stages of a design system, when you need to show the long-term impact of all your work.

Measuring the success of your design system is crucial if you want it to actually improve your team's workflow. By focusing on these key metrics, from adoption and component reuse to ROI and accessibility, you can make sure your design system isn't just a set of components collecting dust, but is actually a tool that delivers real value. Remember, it’s all about prioritizing the right metrics for the goals you have for your system.

So, start tracking your metrics today and see the positive impact it can have on your products. What metrics do you track for your design system? Share them with us on X or LinkedIn.