Why It Matters
Design governance answers questions like: Who can modify the design system? How are new components approved? What quality standards must designs meet? Without governance, design systems become chaotic—everyone adds their own variations, quality degrades, and the "system" becomes a disorganized mess. Governance provides structure without stifling innovation.
Examples
1
A design system contribution process: RFC proposal → team review → prototype → audit → merge.
2
Quality gates: All new components must pass accessibility review and have complete state coverage.
3
A quarterly design system council meeting to review proposed additions and deprecations.
Related Terms
Design Ops
The practice of optimizing design team operations through processes, tools, and systems that enable designers to work more efficiently and effectively.
Design System
A comprehensive collection of reusable components, patterns, guidelines, and design tokens that work together to ensure consistency and efficiency across product development.
Design System Audit
A systematic review of design files to assess adherence to design system standards, identify inconsistencies, and find components that have drifted from their source.
Component Health
A measure of how well components in a design file adhere to design system standards, including proper connections, token usage, and naming conventions.
Explore More Design Terms
Browse our complete glossary of Figma and design systems terminology.