Build Reusable Components Before Assembling Pages
In page design, if components are still drawn from scratch for every page, the result is often pages that only look similar, where one change means many edits.
Article Design Systems Automotive & Mobility
Turn Brand Guidelines into Decision Rules
When revising brand guidelines means adding ever more examples, teams still struggle to find a relevant page when something new arises. A more reliable approach is to distill those examples into rules that help teams assess unfamiliar situations, then make those rules the basis for decisions.
Key points
- Revising brand guidelines should go beyond adding more examples.
- Left unchecked, the same problem recurs: a new situation arises, and no one can find a relevant page.
- Start by distilling examples into rules that help teams assess new situations.
- Capture the approach in decision rules, with the design lead responsible.
- From then on, use one test: can the rules resolve a situation the guidelines do not explicitly cover?
01What to Decide First in Brand Guidelines
When working on brand guidelines, adding polish to an ever-growing collection of examples should not be the first move. During a revision, the order of decisions matters more than the wording in determining whether teams can handle a situation with no matching page.
If you start by rewriting sentences, the team may assume the brand guidelines have been updated. But the same problem remains: when a new situation arises, there is no relevant page to turn to.
Distill examples into rules that help people assess new situations. Without that step, the brand guidelines remain little more than an ever-growing collection of examples.
02Which Brand Guideline Decisions Must Come Later?
Some decisions must wait. Discussing channels, visuals or messaging before turning examples into rules for new situations simply preserves the same accumulation of examples in a different form.
Later decisions are not less important. They must follow earlier choices, or the team will keep treating symptoms: a new situation arises, and there is no relevant page in the guidelines.
03The Order of Brand Guidelines Is a Design Decision
The sequence has three steps: first, distill examples into rules for assessing new situations; then establish a decision framework; only then allow external messaging to change.
Reverse that sequence, and the brand guidelines may look like a hive of activity while still being driven by an expanding collection of examples.
04Use Tools to Embed the Decision Sequence
The decision framework must make the sequence clear. Anyone reading it should know what has been settled and what cannot yet change.
Once the revision is complete, check the decision framework to see whether campaign demands have disrupted the sequence.
05When to Review Brand Guidelines
The design lead owns this process. When an exception breaks the sequence, revise the rules in the decision framework, rather than improvising a change to the brand guidelines in a group chat.
The review asks just one question: can the rules resolve a situation the guidelines do not cover? Only when the answer is yes has the sequence been put into practice.
Framework
The Four Layers of Brand Guidelines
From non-negotiables to tools people can use in practice, each layer answers one question, keeping the brand guidelines from becoming another expanding collection of examples.
L1Rules
This layer defines what is non-negotiable in the brand guidelines.
L2Examples Illustrate, Not Dictate
This layer translates the brand guidelines into criteria that can be checked.
L3New Situations
This layer defines what can change across different contexts.
L4Update Rules
This layer equips people to use the brand guidelines and sets out the exceptions.
Note: This diagram is a conceptual framework. It explains a way of thinking and is not statistical data. Source: Qingmei Future Insights.
Recommended actions
Action 01
Start from the site
As you revise the guidelines, identify the moments when people actually rely on them. Do not begin by rewriting an ever-growing collection of examples.
Action 02
Keep it to one page
Replace lengthy explanations with a decision framework. Keep only what helps turn examples into rules for assessing new situations.
Action 03
Judge it by one question
Once the revision is complete, ask just one question: can the rules resolve a situation the guidelines do not cover? Without an answer, you do not yet have a basis for decisions.
Action 04
Name the owner
The design lead owns this process. Without someone responsible for maintaining them, brand guidelines will be quietly rewritten whenever conflicts arise.
Related
All insightsRelated insights
Templates Should Preserve Decisions, Not Eliminate Every Difference
When a template dictates every detail, people tend either to copy it verbatim or abandon it altogether.
A Design System Needs an Owner
If a design system is considered complete as soon as it is published, exceptions accumulate and no one updates the system.