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Design systemCraft conventionIntermediate

Design System Audits

Count what is actually in production before deciding what the system should contain.

Definition

An audit inventories the interface as built: every button style, every grey, every spacing value, every near-duplicate component. It replaces opinion about drift with a list, and it is the standard first step in both starting and repairing a system.

Craft convention. True because the industry converged on it. Breaking it costs familiarity, not correctness.

On this page
  1. Definition
  2. Running one
  3. What to inventory first
  4. In practice
  5. Sources
  6. Continue from here

Running one

  1. 1

    Choose the scope

    One product area or one element type across the whole product. Both work; trying to do both at once does not.

  2. 2

    Collect, do not judge

    Screenshot or extract every instance first. Evaluating while collecting biases towards what you expected to find.

  3. 3

    Group into apparent intent

    Six greys that were meant to be one. Four card layouts that differ only by padding.

  4. 4

    Count and rank

    Frequency plus visibility. A rare inconsistency on the checkout matters more than a common one in an internal tool.

  5. 5

    Decide the target

    For each group: keep one, keep two with a stated rule, or keep them all and admit they are different things.

  6. 6

    Plan the migration

    An audit that produces no migration path produces a slide deck. Sequence by risk, and pair each removal with its replacement.

What to inventory first

Ordered by how much the finding usually changes the plan.

  • Colour values in use, including the ones that were meant to be identical.
  • Type sizes, weights and line heights.
  • Spacing values, which is where the biggest unexplained variance usually sits.
  • Buttons and their states, the most duplicated component in any product.
  • Form fields, especially error presentation.
  • Empty, loading and error states, usually the least systematic part of the interface.

In practice

Spacing tells the truth

Products that look inconsistent for reasons nobody can name usually have dozens of arbitrary spacing values. Auditing spacing first often explains more of the perceived mess than auditing colour, and the fix is cheaper.

Sources

Where a source establishes something narrower than the popular reading of it, the note says so.

  • Interface Inventory

    B. Frost

    The widely used method for cataloguing an interface before systematising it.

Continue from here

Each link says what the connection is, so you can tell a principle from an alternative from a thing people mix this up with.

Check your work

Review passes that test whether this was done properly.

Related concept

Connected closely enough to change how you apply this.