What Are Design Tokens and Why Should We Use Them?

Design tokens have become a crucial part of modern design systems, allowing for consistent and scalable design across different platforms. They help bridge the gap between design and development, ensuring that everyone speaks the same "language" when it comes to design elements. But what exactly are design tokens, why are they important, and how can we use them effectively?

In this article, we'll explore:

• What design tokens are
• Why we should use them
• Different types of design tokens
• Practical ways to implement design tokens

What Are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are the smallest units of a design system that capture design decisions such as colors, spacing, typography, and more. These values are stored in a format that both designers and developers can easily use across platforms (web, mobile, etc.).

In simpler terms, design tokens are variables that store the design properties of a system in a structured and reusable way.

Example:

{
  "color-primary": "#007BFF",
  "spacing-small": "8px",
  "font-size-base": "16px",
  "border-radius": "4px"
}

In this JSON format, tokens like color-primary, spacing-small, and font-size-base represent design decisions that are reusable across different components.

Why JSON?

• Platform independence: JSON is platform-neutral, making it easier to convert tokens into various formats (CSS, SCSS, Android, iOS, etc.).
• Consistency: JSON tokens ensure consistency in design across different platforms.

Why Should We Use Design Tokens?

Design tokens play a crucial role in creating scalable and consistent user interfaces. Here are the key benefits of using design tokens:

Consistency Across Platforms

Design tokens help ensure that every element in your design system is consistent. Whether you’re developing for the web, mobile, or even desktop applications, design tokens keep the colors, typography, and spacing the same across every platform.

Improved Collaboration Between Designers and Developers

By storing design decisions as tokens, both designers and developers speak the same "language." Designers can update the tokens in a design tool, and developers can directly use those tokens in the codebase, ensuring seamless handoff and communication.

Faster Updates and Maintenance

Design tokens allow for quick updates. For example, if you need to change your primary brand color, you only need to update the color-primary token in one place. This update will then reflect across your entire design system without having to go into each individual component.

Scalability

As your project grows, maintaining consistency becomes challenging. Design tokens make your design system scalable, allowing you to maintain consistency even as you add new features or platforms.

Different Types of Design Tokens

There are various types of design tokens that you can define, depending on the elements of your design system. Here are the most commonly used types:

Color Tokens

Colors are the most common type of design token. These can include primary, secondary, background, text, border colors, etc.

{
  "color-primary": "#007BFF",
  "color-secondary": "#6C757D",
  "color-background": "#FFFFFF",
  "color-text": "#212529"
}

Typography Tokens

Typography tokens define the font sizes, line heights, font weights, and font families used in your design system.

{
  "font-size-base": "16px",
  "font-size-heading": "24px",
  "font-family": "'Roboto', sans-serif",
  "font-weight-bold": "700"
}

Spacing Tokens

Spacing tokens are used to define margins, padding, and spacing between elements.

{
  "spacing-small": "8px",
  "spacing-medium": "16px",
  "spacing-large": "32px"
}

Border Tokens

Borders and radii are also captured as tokens, which helps maintain consistency in button styles, cards, and other components.

{
  "border-radius": "4px",
  "border-width": "1px",
  "border-color": "#E0E0E0"
}

Shadow Tokens

For box shadows, you can store the values in tokens to maintain consistency across components.

{
  "shadow-small": "0px 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)",
  "shadow-large": "0px 4px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)"
}

Practical Ways to Use Design Tokens

Now that we understand what design tokens are and the different types, let’s explore how to use them in practice.

Using Tokens in CSS or SCSS

Design tokens can be integrated directly into your CSS or SCSS files using variables. This allows you to update the tokens easily across your entire codebase.

Example:

$color-primary: #007BFF;
$spacing-small: 8px;
$font-size-base: 16px;

button {
  background-color: $color-primary;
  padding: $spacing-small;
  font-size: $font-size-base;
}

In this example, if you change the $color-primary value, every button using that token will automatically update.

Using Design Tokens in Design Tools

Tools like Figma and Sketch now support design tokens. You can create shared styles for colors, typography, and other design elements, and when you update a token, all components using that token will update automatically.

Figma: Use the Styles feature to manage design tokens within the design tool.

Sketch: Use the Shared Styles to define and reuse tokens.

Image source: https://sketchelements.com/plugins/design-tokens/

Design Tokens Sketch Plugin

Using Design Tokens with JavaScript

Design tokens can also be used in JavaScript frameworks. By integrating tokens into your code, you can dynamically change your UI's design properties based on user preferences or themes (e.g., light and dark mode).

Example:

const theme = {
  colorPrimary: "#007BFF",
  spacingSmall: "8px",
  fontSizeBase: "16px"
};

const button = document.querySelector('.button');
button.style.backgroundColor = theme.colorPrimary;
button.style.padding = theme.spacingSmall;
button.style.fontSize = theme.fontSizeBase;

Using Design Tokens in Theming

Design tokens are particularly useful when creating themes for your application. For example, switching between a light theme and a dark theme can be easily achieved by swapping token values.

Example:

{
  "light": {
    "color-background": "#FFFFFF",
    "color-text": "#000000"
  },
  "dark": {
    "color-background": "#000000",
    "color-text": "#FFFFFF"
  }
}

By toggling between the light and dark tokens, your entire app can switch themes seamlessly.

Conclusion

Design tokens are a fundamental part of modern design systems, allowing for consistent, scalable, and efficient design across platforms. Whether you're using them to define colors, typography, or spacing, tokens help maintain consistency and make updates easier. By integrating design tokens into your workflow, you can streamline collaboration between design and development, reduce maintenance time, and create a more flexible and scalable design system.

Start using design tokens today and see how they can help you build a more consistent, efficient, and scalable design system!

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I hope this article helped you understand the importance of design tokens and how they can streamline your design system. If you’re interested in learning more, best practices, and how to implement scalable solutions in your projects, make sure to follow me for more updates!

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