Top Design System books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Design System books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Design System

Understanding the concepts of Design System starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Design Systems Handbook

This book guides listeners through best practices around planning, designing, building, and implementing a design system, with insights and first-hand experiences from lead designers at Shopify, Google, Apple, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Building Design Systems: Unify User Experiences Through a Shared Design Language

Learn how to build a design system framed within the context of your specific business needs. This book guides you through the process of defining a design language that can be understood across teams, while also establishing communication strategies for how to sell your system to key stakeholders and other contributors.
With a defined set of components and guidelines, designers can focus t…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Atomic Design

Atomic Design details all that goes into creating and maintaining robust design systems, allowing you to roll out higher quality, more consistent UIs faster than ever before. This book introduces a methodology for thinking of our UIs as thoughtful hierarchies, discusses the qualities of effective pattern libraries, and showcases techniques to transform your team's design and development workfl…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Head First Design Patterns

At any given moment, someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. And, chances are, someone else has already solved your problem. This edition of Head First Design Patterns―now updated for Java 8―shows you the tried-and-true, road-tested patterns used by developers to create functional, elegant, reusable, and flexible software. By the time you finish this book, you’ll be …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Expressive Design Systems

Good design systems can help you create digital products with efficiency and consistency. But great design systems will support and strengthen your team’s creativity at the same time. In Expressive Design Systems, Yesenia Perez-Cruz shows you how to build useful, dependable systems that not only maintain harmony across your products, but also flex to accommodate inspiration and experimentation…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time

Today, software engineers need to know not only how to program effectively but also how to develop proper engineering practices to make their codebase sustainable and healthy. This book emphasizes this difference between programming and software engineering.
How can software engineers manage a living codebase that evolves and responds to changing requirements and demands over the length of …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional Design System Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Design System, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Laying the Foundations: A book about design systems

This is real talk about creating design systems and digital brand guidelines. No jargon, no glossing over the hard realities, and no company hat. Just good advice, experience, and practical tips.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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Hey! 😊 I'm a product designer and I love systems and design strategy. I worked with cool brands like IBM, Lloyds Bank, The Telegraph, Google, and more, in both B2C and B2B spaces. My everyday goal is to solve tricky problems and come up with game-changing solutions for businesses and …

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As a seasoned design leader with over 20 years of experience, I understand the challenges and obstacles that designers face in their careers. That's why I'm passionate about empowering and educating the next generation of designers. With a background in design education and a wide range of professional experience, I …



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