Create a self-serve, interactive onboarding experience that helps designers understand how to work with your design system, not just what exists. This approach builds confidence through context, examples, and hands-on interaction, reducing reliance on ad-hoc support and repeated walkthroughs.
Use this to onboard new designers, introduce a system for the first time, or support learning as the system evolves.
Set expectations
Explain what the system is for, how opinionated it is, and how designers are expected to work with it.
Structure the journey
Organise onboarding into clear sections such as getting started, foundations, components, and where to get help.
Show real examples
Use realistic product scenarios to demonstrate how foundations and components are used together in practice.
Add simple interaction
Include small hands-on tasks so designers can try things themselves rather than just read or watch.
Keep it current
Update onboarding as foundations, components, or guidance change, and reuse the same approach to introduce system updates over time.