In the rapidly evolving world of digital product design, design systems have become indispensable tools for creating cohesive, scalable, and efficient user experiences. A well-crafted design system helps teams maintain consistency across platforms, speeds up the development process, and aligns design with business goals. As we approach 2025, understanding and learning from the most popular and influential design systems is essential for designers, developers, and product managers alike.
In this blog, we will explore some of the most popular design systems to learn from in 2025—their features, philosophies, and why they remain industry benchmarks. Whether you’re a budding designer or a seasoned professional, these systems offer invaluable lessons and inspiration.
What Is a Design System?
Before diving into examples, let’s briefly recap what a design system is. A design system is a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled to build digital products. It typically includes:
UI components (buttons, forms, modals, etc.)
Typography and color palettes
Design guidelines and principles
Accessibility standards
Code snippets or front-end frameworks
A solid design system ensures consistency, speeds up product development, and fosters collaboration between designers and developers.
Why Learn From Established Design Systems?
Learning from popular design systems allows you to:
Understand best practices in UI/UX design
See how companies solve common design challenges
Learn how to build scalable and maintainable systems
Gain inspiration for your own projects or career growth
Now, let’s explore some of the most popular and widely respected design systems in 2025.
1. Google’s Material Design
Material Design by Google remains one of the most influential design systems in the world. Launched in 2014, it introduced the concept of “material” as a metaphor for digital surfaces that move and interact like real-world materials. Material Design emphasizes bold colors, depth effects like shadows and lighting, and intuitive motion.
Why Learn From Material Design?
Comprehensive guidelines: Material Design covers everything from layout, typography, iconography, to motion.
Cross-platform: Used widely in Android apps, web apps, and even iOS apps.
Accessibility: Strong focus on making interfaces accessible to everyone.
Open-source components: The Material UI library offers ready-to-use React components.
Constant updates: Google continually evolves Material Design, incorporating new design trends like neumorphism and dynamic color theming.
Learning Material Design equips you with principles that apply broadly, helping you create visually appealing and user-friendly interfaces.
2. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) are the cornerstone for designing apps for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Apple is known for its attention to detail, simplicity, and seamless user experience.
Why Learn From Apple HIG?
Minimalism and clarity: Apple emphasizes content over chrome (UI decorations), encouraging clean and focused interfaces.
Gesture-based navigation: Provides insights into touch interactions and animations.
Platform-specific design: Covers unique considerations for each Apple platform.
Performance and fluidity: Stresses smooth animations and responsive design.
Privacy-first approach: Guidelines ensure apps respect user privacy and security.
Studying Apple’s guidelines helps you design premium, intuitive, and elegant user experiences, particularly if you target Apple ecosystems.
3. Microsoft Fluent Design System
Microsoft’s Fluent Design System is a modern design language that aims to create engaging, immersive experiences across devices and platforms, including Windows, Xbox, and web applications.
Why Learn From Fluent Design?
Light, depth, motion, and material: Fluent builds upon these key elements to bring UI alive.
Cross-device consistency: Supports seamless experience on desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Accessibility: Fluent emphasizes inclusive design and easy adaptability.
Component libraries: Microsoft provides UI libraries for React (Fluent UI) and other frameworks.
Integration with Microsoft 365: A great example of ecosystem-wide design consistency.
Learning Fluent Design is beneficial for those working on enterprise or Microsoft-centric applications, where consistency and productivity are key.
4. IBM Carbon Design System
IBM’s Carbon Design System is a robust, scalable design system created to power enterprise software. It’s highly modular and built with accessibility and internationalization in mind.
Why Learn From Carbon Design?
Enterprise focus: Ideal for complex, data-heavy applications.
Component-driven: Offers a rich set of React components.
Accessibility-first: Strong adherence to WCAG guidelines.
Extensive documentation: Detailed guidelines and design tokens.
Open source: Encourages community contributions and transparency.
Carbon Design teaches how to handle complexity while keeping usability and consistency intact.
5. Shopify Polaris
Polaris is Shopify’s design system that supports their e-commerce platform and related apps. It’s designed for merchants and developers, ensuring consistent brand experience and usability.
Why Learn From Polaris?
Merchant-centric design: Focuses on real-world business needs.
Clear, concise communication: Emphasizes simple language and straightforward UI.
Accessibility: Strong guidelines for screen readers and keyboard navigation.
Open source React components: Easy to integrate into apps.
Scalability: Designed to grow with the rapidly expanding Shopify ecosystem.
If you work on e-commerce or SaaS products, Polaris is an excellent design system to study.
6. Atlassian Design System
Atlassian, the maker of Jira, Confluence, and other popular tools, maintains a design system built for collaboration and productivity.
Why Learn From Atlassian Design System?
Collaboration-first: Designed to support team workflows.
Flexible components: Highly customizable UI elements.
Cross-product consistency: Unifies multiple complex tools.
Accessibility and internationalization: Built-in best practices.
Open source and community-driven: Actively evolving with user feedback.
Atlassian’s system is a great example of designing for complex user workflows while maintaining clarity and ease of use.
7. Salesforce Lightning Design System
Salesforce’s Lightning Design System (SLDS) powers one of the largest SaaS platforms in the world. It’s a mature system focused on enterprise CRM applications.
Why Learn From SLDS?
Enterprise-grade components: Tailored for business applications.
Consistency across products: Ensures users have a seamless experience.
Accessibility compliance: Meets rigorous standards.
Customizability: Allows branding without losing consistency.
Strong developer support: Extensive code examples and tooling.
Learning SLDS helps you understand how to scale design systems across large SaaS ecosystems.
Conclusion: Which Design System Should You Learn?
By 2025, mastering design systems will be crucial for anyone involved in digital product design or development. Each design system listed above offers unique strengths depending on your target platform, audience, and project scope.
For mobile and web interfaces with rich motion and vibrant UI, start with Google’s Material Design.
For Apple ecosystem apps, dive into Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.
For enterprise and Microsoft apps, Fluent Design and IBM Carbon are invaluable.
For e-commerce and SaaS, explore Shopify Polaris, Atlassian Design System, and Salesforce Lightning.
Ultimately, understanding multiple design systems enhances your versatility, sharpens your design thinking, and prepares you to create user-centered, scalable digital experiences.