Skip to content
©2026 Alify® — Independent digital agency Loading experience

A L I F Y

Websites · Brands · Growth

000%
Design — Build — Optimise Karachi · Working worldwide
ALIFY
Start a project
hello@alify.agency
USA · Canada · Europe · Australia

Get a Free Quote

JOURNAL — 002 · Design

# Design Systems That Convert, Not Just Impress

AH Amelia Hart, Design Director · May 9, 2026 · 6 min read

A design system isn't a trophy for your Figma sidebar — it's a conversion machine when it's built around the components that actually sell. Where to start, and what to skip.

Dribbble loves a 400-component design system. Your conversion rate loves something else: twelve components so considered that every product page, every landing page and every email inherits the persuasion by default. That's the design system worth paying for.

## Start with the money pages

Audit where revenue actually happens: the PDP, the pricing section, the signup flow, the hero with its single decision. Design those components first — not buttons in fourteen states. A pricing table tested across five hypotheses teaches you more than a month of color tokens.

- PDP/configurator — variant clarity, sticky add-to-cart, proof placement.
- Pricing components — anchoring, featured states, objection-handling footnotes.
- Forms — the highest-friction component on your site deserves sprints, not afternoons.
- Proof modules — testimonials, logos, metrics: systematized, reusable, honest.

## The discipline that makes it a system

Tokens (color, type, spacing) so changes propagate in minutes. Naming your developers agreed to. Accessibility built in — contrast and focus states at component level, not as a retrofit. And a single source of truth: one library, versioned, documented, with designers and engineers treating divergence as a bug.

> Good design systems don't constrain creativity — they concentrate it on the problems that aren't solved yet.Design team principle

## What to skip (for now)

The 60-page brand book before the first A/B test. Dark mode for its own sake. Motion specs nobody implements. A system earns its extensions — let the roadmap be driven by experiments, not completeness.

Ship the twelve components, test them into shape, and let the system grow around what converts. Impress later; sell first.

Design ALIFY Journal 6 min read
AH
Amelia Hart
Design Director · ALIFY

Part of the senior team behind 250+ launches across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Writes from the field, not from other blogs.

Keep reading

## More from the journal.

Design August 16, 2026 4 min read UX Research on a Shoestring: Five Methods Under $500 No lab, no panel, no excuses. Guerrilla testing, session mining, support-ticket archaeology and two more research moves any team can run this week. Read article Design August 25, 2026 4 min read Design Systems for 5-Person Teams: Skip or Build? Systems thinking isn't just for enterprises — but a component library can also sink a small team. The honest build/borrow/freeze framework. Read article Design August 10, 2026 4 min read Dark Mode Done Right: Contrast, Elevation and Ink Dark UIs fail on hierarchy, not colour. The elevation system, desaturated accents and text-ink rules behind dark interfaces that don't tire eyes. Read article
→

Start a project

## Like how we think?

Imagine what we ship. Intro call + fixed quote in 48 hours.

Get a Free Quote See the proof

Cookies, minus the crumbs. We use essential cookies to run this site and optional analytics cookies to improve it — analytics only load after you accept. See our Cookie Policy.

Before you close the tab

## Leaving without a plan?

“Most agencies sell hours. We sell outcomes — and we’ll prove it in a free 20-minute teardown of your current website.”

- Free homepage & site-speed audit
- Three quick wins you can ship this month
- A fixed-price roadmap — zero obligation

Book my free audit Just say hi

Free framework — instant download

## The 90-Day Growth Framework

The exact playbook we use with clients across four continents: audit, quick wins, compounding channels, automation. Get it free in your inbox.

Email address

No spam. One email a month, unsubscribe anytime.

ALIFY Assist Online · replies in minutes
Type your message