Building a Design System: The LEGO Masterpiece Approach

Imagine you’ve just unboxed the LEGO® Icons Eiffel Tower set. It’s massive - over 10,000 pieces, intricate details, and a design that captures the essence of Paris’s most famous landmark. You’re excited but also a bit overwhelmed. Where do you start? How do you make sure every piece fits perfectly to create a stunning, cohesive model?

Building a design system is a lot like building that LEGO masterpiece. It’s about taking thousands of tiny pieces - colors, buttons, fonts, layouts - and assembling them into a consistent, reusable structure that supports countless unique creations.

Hi, I’m Mehul, a product designer who’s built many digital products and design systems (check out my portfolio here). Let me take you on a fun, step-by-step journey of building your own design system - LEGO style.

Step 1: Unbox and Take Inventory - Your Design Audit

Before you start snapping bricks together, you open the box and sort the pieces. You separate the reds from the blues, the tiny rods from the big plates. This sorting is crucial - imagine trying to build the Eiffel Tower without knowing where your pieces are!

In design system terms, this is your design audit. Gather every UI element you have - buttons, colors, typography styles - and catalog them. Identify duplicates, inconsistencies, and missing pieces. When I start with clients, this audit reveals surprising variations - like five different “submit” buttons floating around - that slow down design and development.

Step 2: Follow the Blueprint - Define Your Design Principles

The LEGO Eiffel Tower comes with a detailed instruction booklet - a blueprint guiding you on how to assemble each section. Without it, the tower wouldn’t stand tall or look right.

Similarly, your design system needs design principles - the guiding philosophy behind every decision. In my work, I emphasize principles like accessibility, simplicity, and consistency. These principles are your blueprint, ensuring every component aligns with your brand and user needs.

Write them down clearly. They’ll help you decide if a button should be rounded or square, or if a color is too bright for accessibility.

Step 3: Sort Pieces into Atoms, Molecules, and Organisms - Atomic Design

LEGO builders don’t just dump all bricks into one pile. They build small subassemblies - like a window frame or a balcony - before combining them into larger sections.

In design systems, this is called Atomic Design, a method I use often. It breaks UI into:

Atoms: Basic building blocks like colors, fonts, and buttons
Molecules: Simple groups of atoms working together, like a search bar (input + button)
Organisms: Complex components like a full header with navigation and logo

Just like LEGO subassemblies, building these smaller components first makes the whole system easier to manage and reuse.

Step 4: Choose Your Team’s Construction Style - Governance Model

Are you building the LEGO set solo, or with friends? Maybe one person leads while others help, or everyone builds their own section independently.

Design systems need a governance model too:

Standalone: Each team builds their own mini-system
Centralized: One team controls the entire system
Federated: A core team manages foundations, with others contributing specialized parts

In my experience, the federated model works best for growing teams - it balances control with flexibility, like having a master builder coordinating with helpers.

Step 5: Build Your Foundation - The Corner Bricks

Every LEGO set starts with a solid base - the corner bricks and foundation plates that hold everything together.

For your design system, these foundations are your:

Color palette (primary, secondary, alerts)
Typography (fonts, sizes, line heights)
Spacing system (margins, paddings)
Grid layout (columns, breakpoints)
Iconography

These basics keep your design system stable and cohesive, just like the base keeps the Eiffel Tower upright.

Step 6: Assemble Core Components - Your Signature Sections

Next, you start building key sections of the tower - the legs, the elevators, the observation decks. Each piece has multiple states - some bricks snap tight, others hinge or slide.

Similarly, your core UI components need to be designed with all their states:

Buttons (default, hover, disabled)
Form fields (empty, focused, error)
Navigation bars
Cards and modals

When I design these, I think about every interaction detail - how does the button look when loading? What if the label is too long? This attention to detail ensures your system is robust and user-friendly.

Step 7: Create Your Design and Code Libraries - The Instruction Manual and Brick Box

The LEGO set comes with a manual and a well-organized box of bricks. Designers need a design library (in Figma or Adobe XD) with components ready to drag and drop. Developers need a code library with reusable, accessible components matching the designs exactly.

I always collaborate closely with developers to ensure the code library reflects the design system perfectly - no surprises, no mismatches.

Step 8: Document Everything - Your LEGO Guidebook

Imagine trying to build the Eiffel Tower without those trusty LEGO instructions-frustrating, right? That’s why good documentation is your design system’s guidebook. It tells everyone exactly how the pieces fit together, what each part does, and how to create something amazing every time.

In my workflow, I love collaborating with developers to create this guidebook using Storybook. Storybook is like the ultimate LEGO instruction manual for your design system-it’s interactive, visual, and always up to date. With Storybook, designers and developers can:

See every component in action (just like flipping through pages of a LEGO manual)
Check all the different “states” (like seeing how a LEGO door opens, closes, or locks)
Read clear usage instructions (no more guessing how a piece fits)
Explore accessibility guidelines and code snippets
Contribute improvements as the system grows

By using Storybook, we make sure everyone on the team-designers, developers, and even stakeholders-can understand, use, and contribute to the design system with confidence. It’s the secret to making sure our “LEGO tower” stands tall, sturdy, and easy to expand.

Step 9: Share and Celebrate - Show Off Your LEGO Masterpiece

Once your tower is built, you want to show it off! Share your design system wins with your team and leadership. Host workshops, celebrate contributions, and track adoption.

In my projects, this step is crucial. A design system is only valuable if people actually use it.

Step 10: Keep Building - Your Design System Is a Living Model

The Eiffel Tower LEGO set is just the start - you might add custom lights or connect it to other sets. Your design system is the same: it evolves.

Regularly update components, add new ones, and remove outdated pieces. Listen to feedback and keep improving.

Common Pitfalls: Don’t Step on These LEGO Bricks!

Building a design system is exciting, but there are a few classic pitfalls to watch out for-just like stepping on a LEGO brick in the dark!

Over-engineering: It’s tempting to build the most complex, all-encompassing system, but sometimes simple is better. Always ask: does this added complexity solve a real problem, or just make things harder to use and maintain?
Poor Documentation: Even the best system falls apart if no one knows how to use it. Documentation should be clear, visual, and easy to navigate-not a dusty manual no one reads.
Lack of Adoption: If your team isn’t using the system, it’s just a pretty shelf piece. Involve everyone early, gather feedback, and make it easy (and rewarding) to use and contribute.
Inconsistency: If you don’t audit and standardize your components, you’ll end up with mismatched bricks and wobbly towers. Regularly review and update your inventory to keep things tidy.
Ignoring Accessibility: Don’t forget to make your system usable for everyone-just like LEGO sets are designed for all ages and abilities.

How to Avoid Overengineering? – Keep It Simple, Like a Classic LEGO Build

When building your system, always start with the simplest solution. Each extra layer of abstraction or complexity should be justified by a real business need. Otherwise, you risk making your system slower, harder to maintain, and more expensive to build and test. Think of it like adding unnecessary LEGO pieces that don’t make the structure stronger or more fun-sometimes, less is more.

Quick Summary: Design System Checklist

Here’s a handy checklist-like the back of a LEGO box-to guide you through building a strong, scalable design system:

Audit your current design: Inventory all UI elements, spot redundancies, and document everything.
Define your design principles: Set clear, actionable guidelines for consistency and accessibility.
Choose your tools: Figma for design, Storybook for documentation and Figma Tokens for consistency.
Structure your system: Use Atomic Design (atoms, molecules, organisms) to build reusable components.
Establish governance: Decide who maintains the system and how contributions are managed.
Build your foundations: Standardize colors, typography, spacing, and grids.
Create and document components: Design, code, and document each piece with clear usage guidelines.
Test for accessibility: Make sure everyone can use your components.
Promote adoption: Train your team, gather feedback, and celebrate wins.
Maintain and evolve: Regularly review, update, and expand your system as your product grows.
Avoid common pitfalls: Keep it simple, document well, and focus on adoption.

Final Thoughts: Your Design System Is Your LEGO Masterpiece

Building a design system is like assembling an epic LEGO set - it takes patience, planning, and teamwork. But the result? A beautiful, scalable, and consistent product that everyone can build on.

If you want to see how I’ve applied these principles in real projects or need help building your design system, check out my portfolio here and let’s chat!