Workflow for design systems

An overview of the design system workflow for frontend developers

How frontend tools work together has a significant impact on the ultimate value design and development teams can realize. When done well, it should be seamless to develop and reuse UI components.

This chapter showcases the five-step workflow by introducing a new component AvatarList.

Design system workflow


AvatarList is a component that displays multiple avatars. Like the other design system components, AvatarList started off being pasted into many projects. That’s why it warrants inclusion in the design system. For this demo, let’s assume that the component was developed in another project and jump straight to the finished code.


First, make a new branch on git where we’ll be tracking this work.

git checkout -b create-avatar-list-component

Download AvatarList component and story to your machine. Place it in the /src directory:

Storybook is setup to automatically detect files ending in \*.stories.js and show them in the UI.

Storybook with AvatarList component

Nice! Now let’s articulate each UI state supported by AvatarList. At a glance, it’s clear that AvatarList supports some of Avatar’s properties like small and loading.

export const SmallSize = Template.bind({});
SmallSize.args = {
  users: Short.args.users,
  size: 'small',

export const Loading = Template.bind({});
Loading.args = {
  loading: true,

Storybook with more AvatarList stories

Given that it’s a list, it should show many avatars. Let’s add stories that showcase what happens with numerous list items and what happens with few list items.

export const Ellipsized = Template.bind({});
Ellipsized.args = {
  users: [
      id: '3',
      name: 'Zoltan Olah',
      avatarUrl: '',
      id: '4',
      name: 'Tim Hingston',
      avatarUrl: '',

export const BigUserCount = Template.bind({});
BigUserCount.args = {
  users: Ellipsized.args.users,
  userCount: 100,

export const Empty = Template.bind({});
Empty.args = {
  users: [],

Save your progress and commit.

git commit -am "Added AvatarList and stories"


Thanks to Storybook Docs, we get customizable documentation with minimal effort. This helps others learn how to use AvatarList by referring to the Docs tab in Storybook.

Storybook docs with minimal AvatarList info

Minimum viable docs! Let’s make AvatarList a bit more human by supplying additional context on how to use it.

 * A list of Avatars, ellipsized to at most 3. Supports passing only a subset of the total user count.
export function AvatarList({ loading, users, userCount, size, ...props }) {

Sprinkle in some additional details about the supported props.

AvatarList.propTypes = {
   * Are we loading avatar data from the network?
  loading: PropTypes.bool,
   * A (sub)-list of the users whose avatars we have data for. Note: only 3 will be displayed.
  users: PropTypes.arrayOf(
      id: PropTypes.string.isRequired,
      name: PropTypes.string,
      avatarUrl: PropTypes.string,
   * The total number of users, if a subset is passed to `users`.
  userCount: PropTypes.number,
   * AvatarList comes in four sizes. In most cases, you’ll be fine with `medium`.
  size: PropTypes.oneOf(Object.keys(sizes)),

Easy as pie! This level of detail is sufficient for now –we can always customize more using MDX later.

Storybook docs with full AvatarList info

Documentation doesn’t have to be tiresome. With automated tooling, we removed the tedium to get straight to writing.

Commit the changes and push to GitHub.

git commit -am "Improved AvatarList docs"

Create a Pull Request

Let’s push our AvatarList branch to GitHub and create a pull request:

git push -u origin create-avatar-list-component

Then navigate to GitHub and open a pull request.

PR created in PR for AvatarList


At this point, AvatarList is a candidate for design system inclusion. Stakeholders must review the component to see if it meets expectations for functionality and appearance.

The design system’s Storybook is automatically published each pull request to make review dead simple. Scroll down to the PR checks to find a link to the deployed Storybook.

PR check for deployed PR

Find the AvatarList in the Storybook online. It should look identical to your local Storybook.

AvatarList in Storybook online

The online Storybook is a universal reference point for the team. Share the link to AvatarList with other stakeholders to get feedback faster. Your team will love you because they don’t have to deal with code or setting up a development environment.

Looks good, ship it!

Reaching consensus with numerous teams often feels an exercise in futility. Folks reference out of date code, don’t have a development environment, or scatter feedback across multiple tools. Reviewing Storybook online makes it as simple as sharing a URL.


Our test suite runs in the background every commit. AvatarList is a simple presentational component so unit tests aren’t necessary. But if we take a look at the PR check, our visual testing tool Chromatic has already detected changes that need to be reviewed.

Chromatic changes on the GitHub PR check

Since AvatarList is new there aren’t visual tests for it yet. We’ll need to add baselines for each story. Accept the “new stories” in Chromatic to expand visual test coverage.

Chromatic changes to the AvatarList stories

Once you’re done, the build will pass in Chromatic.

Chromatic changes to the AvatarList stories accepted

Which, in turn, updates the PR check in GitHub.

Chromatic changes accepted on the GitHub PR check

The tests were successfully updated. In the future, regressions will have a tough time sneaking into the design system.


We have an open pull request that adds AvatarList to the design system. Our stories are written, the tests pass, and documentation exists. At last, we’re ready to update our design system package with Auto and npm.

Add the minor label to the PR. This tells Auto to update the minor version of the package on merge.

GitHub PR with labels

Now merge your PR, and navigate to your package on npm and hang tight for a few minutes while the package is updated.

Package published on npm

Success! Your design system package was updated from the comfort of GitHub. No need to touch the command line or fuss with npm. Update the learnstorybook-design-system dependency in the example app to start using AvatarList.

Your journey begins

Design Systems for Developers highlights the end-to-end workflow used by professional frontend teams to give you a headstart as you develop your own. As your design system grows add, rearrange, and extend these tools to fit your team’s needs.

Chapter 9 concludes with the complete sample code, helpful resources, and frequently asked questions from developers.

Next Chapter
Thriving design systems save time and increase productivity